UJ 





Class 

Book.__ 
Copyright^ 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



The Gospel in 
Nature 

OR 

God's Demonstration 



By S. M. BROWN 



The Western Baptist Publishing Co. 
KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI 

-:- 19 11 -:- 



^ 



Copyrighted 1911, 

By 

The Western Baptist Publishing 

Company. 



>' 

©CI. A 2 954 3 



DEDICATION. 

To those who, like Thomas, wish to see 
before believing, and to those who may be 
asked for a reason of their hope, I dedicate 
the following pages. 

THE AUTHOR. 



CONTENTS 

PREFACE 7 

INTRODUCTION n 

CHAPTER I. 
Existence of a Personal God 17 

CHAPTER II. 
Existence of a Personal God 31 

CHAPTER III. 
Triune Nature of God 43 

CHAPTER IV. 
Character and Attributes of God 51 

CHAPTER V. 
Depravity and Heredity 59 

CHAPTER VI. 
Government 69 

CHAPTER VII. 
Incarnation, Regeneration and Sanctification 81 

CHAPTER VIII. 
Substitution 91 

CHAPTER IX. 
Resurrection and Immortality 99 

CHAPTER X. 
Plan of Salvation 109 

CHAPTER XI. 
Modern Evolution 117 

CHAPTER XII. 
The Family 139 

CHAPTER XIII. 
Appeal to an Unbeliever 145 



PREFACE 

Of late years there has been much investiga- 
tion as to the source, authorship and authority of 
the Bible. Uncertainty, and sometimes doubt, 
have been raised in the minds of many. It has 
occurred to the author of this book that the ques- 
tion : "Are the doctrines and principles inculcated 
in the Scriptures true?" is, after all, far more 
important than any question which could be raised 
as to their origin, or even their inspiration. If it 
can be clearly shown that the Bible is true; that 
what it requires is right and wise ; that it simply 
reveals the truth and does not presume to create 
truth, then the important question is, not "Is the 
Bible inspired ?" but rather, "What truths does the 
Bible reveal?" If one will carefully study the 
Bible and compare its revelations with what one 
must see and know from every other possible 
source of knowledge, he will, I think, be forced to 
the conclusion that only inspired men could have 
written it. The Bible itself, if intelligently com- 
pared with all the dependable knowledge men have 
derived from other sources, is conclusive evidence 
of its inspiration and authority. It should be 
kept in mind that the Bible only reveals, and does 
not create truth. Every great principle incul- 
cated in the Scriptures was true before the Bible 
was written, and would have been true if there 
had been no Bible. All the truth concerning God, 



8 THE GOSPEL IN NATURE. 

man, and all the creation is coexistent with God 
and man and creation. The Bible comes in along 
through the centuries of the world's history and 
lays claim to be a revelation of certain of these 
great eternal truths. Now the line of thought, 
earnestly if imperfectly presented in the following 
pages, has confirmed the author's opinion that the 
Bible is justified in its claim. 

If it should be regarded by some as presump- 
tion on his part for the author, who lays no par- 
ticular claim to profound learning, to deal with 
certain questions brought forward, his reply is 
that they are matters which have been thrust 
upon him ; matters with which he, along with the 
great mass of ordinary people like himself, is com- 
pelled to deal. Personal accountability and re- 
sponsibility should carry along with it the privi- 
lege of personal opinion and the right to express 
it. Human learning should be regarded as only 
human, and nothing which is only human is ulti- 
mate. Much of the learning of each generation 
is usually discarded by the succeeding one. We 
should not forget that we can no more invent 
truth in the realm of morals and religion than we 
can invent truth in physics. It has seemed to the 
author that men have been influenced by the 
"wish," which has become "father to the thought," 
to invent, from little or no real ground in facts, 
certain theories in the realm of morals and reli- 
gion which have led them to attempt to promul- 
gate theories of physical science which disregard 
plain facts which are observed in the workings of 
physical nature. I do not claim that these at- 
tempts have been consciously dishonest; they 



PREFACE. 9 

are rather what might be expected if one takes 
into consideration the inate depravity of the hu- 
man heart. With some embarrassment, but with 
absolute conviction, the author commits this vol- 
ume to the public in the hope that the matters 
herein presented may be energized by the Holy 
Spirit. 

July, 1911. S. M. B. 



INTR OlD U C TION 

If there is a way by which the great truths, 
doctrines and principles revealed in the Bible, can 
be verified, to the perfect satisfaction of the ordi- 
nary mind, then to point out that way is a matter 
of supreme importance. 

In the judgment of the author of this book, 
the physical creation was intended by the Creator 
to furnish simple, plain demonstrations of these 
truths, so that even the man of ordinary intellec- 
tual caliber, and of moderate literary attainments, 
may be confirmed in his faith. That the physical 
creation would probably teach us some things con- 
cerning its Maker, will, I suppose, be acknowl- 
edged by every one. That it is impossible to deny 
or escape the great facts which are inculcated by 
the physical creation, need not be argued. 

Now presuming, for the time being, that God 
has given to men, in the Bible, a revelation of the 
great truths of His Kingdom pertaining to moral- 
ity and religion, and that the life of man in this 
world is with special reference to the inculcation 
of these truths, it is not unreasonable to suppose 
that God would create the world upon such a plan 
as to contribute to that end. If, indeed, man was 
created a physical being, and placed in a physical 
world, which was intended to be a state of educa- 
tion and probation, and in which it was intended 
to make to him certain revelations of great spirit- 



12 THE GOSPEL IN NATURE. 

ual truths, upon which would devolve his spiritual 
well-being in eternity, then the only rational con- 
clusion is that the Creator, who devised such a 
plan, would so fit up man's physical abode as to 
contribute in every possible way to the making of 
such revelations. The contention of this work is 
that the Creator did this; that the physical crea- 
tion was intended by its Maker to be not simply 
analogous to the great moral and spiritual truths 
revealed in the Bible, but the real demonstration 
of them; that that demonstration is just as cog- 
nizable as any demonstration of a mathematical 
problem placed in plain figures or diagrams before 
the eyes of a pupil. The Apostle Paul declares 
this to be a fact. In his great Epistle to the 
Romans (Romans 1:18-20), he says: "For the 
wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all 
ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who 
hinder (or hold) the truth in unrighteousness; be- 
cause that which is known of God is manifest in 
them; for God manifested it unto them. For the 
invisible things of Him since the creation of the 
world are clearly seen, being perceived through 
the things that are made, even his everlasting 
power and divinity; that they may be without 
excuse." The teaching of this passage is obvious. 
It is that the "invisible things," that is, the great 
intangible, spiritual truths of the Kingdom of God, 
"are clearly seen" — not vaguely apprehended ; not 
simply illustrated, but "clearly seen," "being per- 
ceived through the things that are made." That 
is, that that which is perceived — seen, understood, 
felt — in the things made, is not an illustration, or 
an analogous representation, as Bishop Butler 



INTRODUCTION. 13 

contended, but the thing itself. In other words, 
the things that are made are the tangible demon- 
strations of the intangible truths of God's spiritual 
Kingdom. This obvious teaching of the great 
apostle is, then, the contention put forth in this 
book; that is, that the creation of the physical 
world is the demonstration of the truths of the 
spiritual world; that every great truth of God's 
spiritual Kingdom is worked out, as upon a black- 
board, before the eyes of men, in God's physical 
creation. 

The same great apostle in the same epistle 
(Romans 10:18) declares that ancient Israel 
heard the gospel in the physical creation. 
"But I say, Did they not hear? 

Yea, verily, Their sound went out into all the 
earth, 

And their words unto the ends of the world." 

The apostle here quotes from the Nineteenth 
Psalm : 

"The heavens declare the glory of God, 

And the firmament showeth His handiwork. 

Day unto day uttereth speech, 

And night unto night showeth knowledge. 

There is no speech nor language, 

Their voice cannot be heard. 

Their line is gone out through all the earth, 

And their words to the end of the world." 

Here reference is made solely to the physical 
creation, and the message proclaimed by the mute 
voice is the "glad tidings" — the gospel. 

The fact that certain of the great truths 
found in the Bible, and in the Christian religion, 



14 THE GOSPEL IN NATURE. 

are found, in more or less clearness, set forth in 
other religious systems, and by philosophers who 
certainly had no direct knowledge of the Bible, 
would seem to verify the contention of this book ; 
that is, that the physical creation is a demonstra- 
tion of these matters. This source of information, 
with possible traditional sources, constitute the 
only explanation of these similarities of teaching. 

Another thing: It is the judgment of the 
writer, that it is this perfect correspondence be- 
tween what is called "Natural Religion," and the 
religion revealed in the Bible, which accounts in 
part for the progress of the Christian religion in 
the world, and the certainty of its final triumph 
over every other system. There is a certain 
agreement among all men that may be relied 
upon; that is, that God, whoever He is, created 
the world. It is also naturally considered that 
what one has made in a way reveals its maker. It 
is also true that one cannot escape the convic- 
tion of facts which are constantly held before the 
intellectual vision. Hence it is that sociologists 
rely so much upon environment for the develop- 
ment of human character, and the correction of 
the ills of human society. That which surrounds 
a man every day of his life exerts a most power- 
ful influence upon his thinking, whether that 
influence be conscious or unconscious upon his 
part. So the Creator has so environed our earthly 
existence as to render life in His world impossible 
without the conviction of the truth of the great 
doctrines of His Word. Every man is compelled, 
by all the facts surrounding his earthly existence, 



INTRODUCTION. 15 

to acknowledge the fundamental truths and doc- 
trines revealed in God's Word. These truths are 
not always and altogether congenial. They may 
sometimes contravene one's notions of justice and 
equity, for the reason, no doubt, that one's limita- 
tions render him unable to grasp truth in all its 
relations; and yet he cannot escape their verity. 

The writer holds that every sane person can 
be convinced of the truth of the great teachings of 
the Bible and the Christian religion, even though 
it may be in spite of him, as we say. He has to 
believe them. They are worked to a demonstra- 
tion before his eyes. It is the purpose of the 
writer to point out these demonstrations, and to 
convince those who will follow him, that they do 
really believe all these things; that God, there- 
fore, is just in holding all men accountable in the 
same way, and for the same things ; if not in de- 
gree, at least in kind, on the ground that they all 
know the same truths — have the same kind of 
light and knowledge — which render one account- 
able and guilty. To this task the writer sets his 
hand with a mental assurance born of absolute 
conviction. He holds that there is not a single, 
great fundamental truth in the Bible, from the 
existence of a Triune, personal God — the Creator, 
the first cause — free, absolute, independent, om- 
nipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, to the resur- 
rection of the dead, which is not worked out to a 
demonstration before men's faces, in the physical 
creation of the Almighty. "So that they are 
without excuse." 

There should be no objection to the plan of 



16 THE GOSPEL IN NATURE. 

presentation proposed; that is, that the great 
invisible, spiritual truths, doctrines and principles 
revealed in the Bible, should be tested by the 
truths, doctrines and principles revealed in the 
physical creation. In the first place, the plan is 
a recognition of a plain law of teaching; that is, 
that the human mind is led to the recognition of 
great principles by their manifestation in, and ap- 
plication to, lower or simpler forms, to the recog- 
nition of them in higher and more complex forms. 
"Howbeit that is not first which is spiritual, but 
that which is natural (physical) , then that which 
is spiritual" (1 Cor. 15:46). 

"In the second place, the momentous interests 
involved would seem to imply that the Creator — 
presuming that He, in kindness and benevolence, 
seeks to make Himself, plainly cognizable to man- 
kind — would place before men by a simple, tangi- 
ble demonstration, if possible, the great truths 
involving their eternal spiritual destiny. So we 
take it that our contention will be regarded as 
altogether reasonable and probable. Any how, it 
is true that in the physical creation God demon- 
strates His truth in such a way as to compel its 
acceptance, at least to that extent that one who 
rejects it is guilty of arbitrarily closing his eyes. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE EXISTENCE OF A PERSONAL GOD. 

The Question Stated With Two Views Contrasted. 

It is proposed to show that, given the physi- 
cal creation which is about us, with the certain 
intuitive knowledge which every sane person has, 
one is forced to believe in the existence of a per- 
sonal God, who is the Creator and Designer of the 
physical universe. 

1. Everyone knows that every effect must 
have had an adequate cause. In the very nature 
of the case, every effect must have had a cause. 
The meaning of the word "effect" is, "that pro- 
duced by an agent or cause." 

2. Everyone knows that anything which 
bears the impress of a design which it could not 
have itself conceived, had a designer outside of 
itself, and is, therefore, an effect. This must be 
true at least in so far as the design is concerned. 

3. Everyone knows that that which bears 
the impress of a purpose and design beyond its 
own power to conceive and project, had a begin- 



18 THE GOSPEL IN NATURE. 

ning, since the designer must have existed before 
that which he designed. This is self-evident. 
That which bears the impress of a foreordination 
and adaptation which it of itself could not have 
conceived and projected, had a beginning, was 
foreordained, that is, predestinated, which implies 
that it was thought out before it came into exist- 
ence. 

4. Everyone knows that only a person, that 
is, a being capable of thinking, willing and acting, 
can predestinate, foreordain and adapt a multi- 
plicity of parts to the accomplishment of an in- 
telligent single end or purpose. That is, when 
one sees that in the construction of a thing, sev- 
eral different elements, or parts, have been 
brought together, each several part contributing 
its share toward the accomplishment of an intelli- 
gent end or purpose, all adjusted and related ac- 
cording to a definite plan, that that thing had, 
back of it, a being capable of thinking it out; 
determining to construct it, and of putting the 
plan thought out, and the determination to ac- 
complish it, into operation. All this implies 
thinking, willing and acting, which are the attri- 
butes of a person. 

5. Everyone knows that there is in the 
physical creation about us ample evidence that it 
is an effect ; that it bears the impress of a design 



EXISTENCE OF A PERSONAL GOD. 19 

in its different parts, which it could not have con- 
ceived within itself; that, as it was designed, it 
therefore had a beginning, and that only a person, 
that is, a being capable of thinking, willing and 
acting, could have conceived and constructed the 
physical universe. Of course it is recognized that 
in these latter statements some of the main points 
it is proposed to illustrate and prove, throughout 
this work, are stated. 

With slight variations, and with varying 
points of special emphasis, we may say that there 
are two, and only two, main theories now held, 
as to the origin of the physical universe in its 
present cosmic condition. One is that the whole 
system came into existence — was created — a cos- 
mos, that is, an harmonious system, in the main 
answering to what we now observe it to be. That 
the processes of development have gone on from 
the creation, and will continue; but these pro- 
cesses have been only the development of natural 
forces and things, and not causative. That 
everything was invested, at the time of its cre- 
ation, with a fixed nature which has not changed, 
and probably will not change ; that while in many 
instances there have been improvement and prog- 
ress, in many others there have been decline and 
retrogression. That where there has been great 
change or advance in physical nature, there is con- 



20 THE GOSPEL IN NATURE. 

elusive evidence of outside interposition adding 
some new force. That between the individualism 
of creation there are, always have been, and prob- 
ably always will be, distinct impassable lines ; that 
all development and progress have been parallel 
with these lines, and nowhere have they been 
crossed. That, so far as inherent greatness or 
excellence are concerned, the first tree, plant or 
animal, for instance, might have been of as ex- 
cellent a type as any later one, since in all 
nature the principles of progress, growth and 
development, and those of decay, decline and 
retrogression, seem to work side by side. That 
while the Cerator may have brought the universe 
along the course of its existence, through long 
processes of development, bringing the planets 
to their ideal state, when the earth was finished, 
and ready to receive and sustain life, the Creator 
introduced here certain kinds of plant and animal 
life, which have remained in all essential respects 
precisely the same through all the years of their 
existence, just as though the shop of creation 
were closed, and the Creator gone out of business, 
in the sense of causation, creatively. That while 
the human race, as a whole, for instance, has 
made progress, the race in all its essential aspects 
is precisely the same as in the beginning. Each 
succeeding generation has been able to begin its 



EXISTENCE OF A PERSONAL GOD. 21 

work of discovery* standing upon the results 
of the work of all preceding generations, as upon 
a pedestal, and has therefore been able to make 
advancement. Not that men are different in 
their essential, inherent natures, but they have 
differed in circumstances, in environment. Plato, 
or Moses, for instance, may have been as great as, 
or greater, in inherent ability, than some of our 
public school teachers, or some of the lawyers of 
our day; but on account of the environment of 
our generation, almost any of our public school 
teachers know many things that Plato never 
dreamed of, and many an ordinary lawyer under- 
stands many matters of which the great law- 
giver of ancient Israel was ignorant. 

While the Creator may have seen fit to pursue 
long processes of development in certain phases 
of creation, covering, it may be, millions of years ; 
accomplishing much by antecedents which were, 
in a way, causes of that which came after, still 
there is evidence that these antecedents did not, 
without outside interference, constitute the sum 
of causation. 

As we observe, all development describes 
a short circuit, as we may say. That circuit is 
described by seed-time, growth, harvest; and then 
begins another revolution, not an evolution: 
Birth, life, death — an ever-revolving short circuit, 



22 THE GOSPEL IN NATURE. 

is the teaching as to God's present order, so far as 
we observe it on our planet, and nothing changes 
in its inherent nature and kind. 

That the Creator is a free being, apart from, 
having acted upon, the physical universe, whether 
creating or ordering things by a process of devel- 
opment, or by direct and immediate interposition 
and change or addition; that matter itself had a 
beginning, since upon matter, whether considered 
in its totality or by individual atoms or particles ; 
whether possessing in itself all the potentiality ex- 
pressed in the cosmos, or being possessed of a con- 
stantly communicated activity, there is upon it the 
impress of a design which it could not have con- 
ceived and projected of itself; therefore, matter 
had a beginning — was, or is, acted upon by a free 
being outside of itself, and independent of itself. 
That the manner of this action upon matter can 
only be known by the results; and the results 
plainly show two things: First, that all mate- 
rial things have a fixed nature; second, that all 
development is parallel with all the lines of this 
fixed nature, which differentiate things, never 
crossing them. These two facts in physical na- 
ture are the axiomatic, fundamental facts which 
make all science possible and its conclusions de- 
pendable. If there were working in physical na- 
ture any causative force, which would probably 



EXISTENCE OF A PERSONAL GOD. 23 

bring into existence new facts and principles con- 
cerning the physical creation respecting the na- 
ture of things, then no science could be relied upon, 
and all men would be compelled to look upon the 
whole physical creation, so far as dependable 
knowledge is concerned, as utterly chaotic. That 
the Creator's plan for the universe, so far as our 
planet is concerned, is, that it should furnish 
mankind a schoolhouse in which God reveals 
Himself to men, and by direct interposition lifts 
them to a higher plane; while man, in turn, by 
direct interposition, lifts physical things to a 
higher plane. 

The other view is that the matter, of 
which the physical universe is composed, is 
eternal, that is, it always existed. That there 
is, gripping matter, a law called Evolution which 
accounts for the present cosmic universe. That 
through this power the stars, the suns with their 
systems, were built and organized from a "primi- 
tive nebulosity" — a fire-mist, which, having re- 
ceived an impulse from some unaccounted, if not 
unaccountable source, was set in motion, and 
invested with a nature and a tendency to develop, 
or change, from the simple to the complex, and 
from the complex to the more complex, and so on. 
That this power brought forth our earth from 
a chaotic, nebulous condition to its present cos- 



24 THE GOSPEL IN NATURE. 

mical state. That all forms of plant and animal 
life upon the earth were developed from a very 
few, perhaps from one, primordial germ. That 
the source of that germ may or may not be ac- 
counted for. That from this primordial proto- 
plasm evolution brought forth a plant, which in 
turn became a sort of semi-animal ; which in turn 
became an animal with the mere rudimentary 
organs of a perfect specimen; which in turn be- 
came a still more complex being; which in turn, 
and finally, became man. That all the institu- 
tions now existing among men, social, civil and 
religious, were brought forth by a similar process, 
from the lowest barbarism to the highest civiliza- 
tion. The term for this mighty force is "Evolu- 
tion J' Herbert Spencer, who is considered equal 
to the highest authority on the subject, defines it 
thus: "Evolution is an integration of matter 
and concomitant dissipation of motion, during 
which the matter passes from an indefinite, inco- 
herent homogeneity to a definite, coherent hetero- 
geneity, and during which the retained motion un- 
dergoes a parallel transformation." That this 
force operates not only along parallel lines with 
the individualism of things, plants and animals, 
but overleaps those lines of differentiation, and 
produces new kinds and species, becoming, so far, 
at least, a primary causal power. That this power 



EXISTENCE OF A PERSONAL GOD. 25 

operates by three methods or forces, "spontane- 
ous generation," "natural selection," and the 
"survival of the fittest," by which is meant, not 
only the survival of the strongest, but also the 
best — the highest. That these principles of spon- 
taneous generation of life, natural selection of a 
higher type, and the survival of the fittest, that is 
the strongest, the best, the highest, produces — is 
the cause of — a general trend or tendency up- 
ward, in all the physical creation. It should be 
said that if these three laws or principles, as in- 
hering in physical nature, can be disproven, then 
the whole theory of modern evolution falls to the 
ground. 

The theory seems to be defective. It starts 
out predicating the eternity of matter, which may 
be said to be at least questionable. If we consider 
matter in its final and last analysis, it certainly 
bears the impress of a design, a predestination 
and /oreordination, which it seems utterly impos- 
sible for it to have conceived and given to itself. 
If matter be reduced to a "dead level," as 
we say, still, if it is anything at all, it 
was certainly intended to be the foundation of the 
material cosmos, as we observe it. And in so far 
as it was itself designed and predestinated, it had 
a beginning; and further, that if thus designed 
and predestinated, a being who was at least capa- 



26 THE GOSPEL IN NATURE. 

ble of thinking, willing and acting, designed and 
predestinated it. It is clear that if matter is eter- 
nal and has always been endowed with all the 
activity, quality, properties, and so on, which it 
now possesses; and if the cosmic universe is the 
result of the action of this matter, independent of 
outside interference, then it follows that either 
all things have been describing a ceaseless circle; 
and all that is transpiring now in the mineral, 
vegetable, and animal kingdoms, has transpired 
an infinite number of times before; or, what is 
transpiring now is a part of an everlasting pro- 
cession, both ends of which are unknown and un- 
knowable. 

Again, the three laws, principles or methods 
by and through which it is claimed evolution has 
wrought out all this transformation, are utterly 
untenable, being the exact antithesis, or opposite, 
of every observation of Nature's working, so far 
as our planet is concerned. "Spontaneous gen- 
eration of life," "natural selection," and the 
"survival of the fittest," meaning the 
best — the highest, as principles or laws in physi- 
cal nature — are exactly contrary to all our obser- 
vation. And every sane person on earth acts 
every day of his life, upon the principle that the 
very opposite of this contention is true. 

Everyone knows that if he depends upon 



EXISTENCE OF A PERSONAL GOD. 27 

"spontaneous generation," "natural selection," 
and the "survival of the fittest" for the 
development of any plant or animal with which 
he has to do, he "leans upon a broken stick," as 
we say. In every instance a farmer knows that 
he himself must select his seed corn, or the crop 
may degrade itself. Every man knows that any 
useful thing in the physical creation, left to itself, 
will degenerate. Turn out all your useful plants, 
and leave them to the workings of nature, and the 
noxious weeds will overcome and destroy them. 
The fact is, the bad is voluntary in physical na- 
ture, whereas the good and useful are involun- 
tary; and the trend everywhere, and in every re- 
spect, is downward, not upward. The struggle of 
man from the dawn of his existence to the pres- 
ent day has been to arrest this downward ten- 
dency. 

What constitutes the "struggle for existence," 
a term so often used by the advocates of the the- 
ory of modern evolution ? Why, plainly, it is this 
very serious fact, that in all physical nature the 
tendencies to degradation and death are forever 
tugging at every living and useful thing. And, 
in every instance, that good thing which is left to 
itself, degenerates and dies. Every sane person 
knows this is true. If farmers turn out their cat- 
tle, for instance, they know that they will degen- 



28 THE GOSPEL IN NATURE. 

erate. And this is true for the reason that there 
is no "natural selection" and no "survival of the 
fittest" in nature, if left alone, that would tend 
toward higher types and better and more useful 
forms. 

Compare a herd of the original Texas breed of 
cattle with a herd of Herefords exhibited at our 
Royal Stock Show, from year to year, in Kansas 
City. The one is the production of "natural selec- 
tion," which we have been asked to believe pro- 
duces a higher type, and we have been asked to 
believe means the best — the highest. The other 
is the result of extra outside selection, selection 
by an intelligent human being, and of long years, 
it may be, of the most assiduous effort on the part 
of some man to arrest the natural downward ten- 
dency in cattle-life. The same thing is true of all 
useful animals, and of plants. All the toil of the 
farmer is made necessary on account of this uni- 
versal fact in physical nature, that is, that the 
bad is voluntary, while the good is involuntary; 
and hence, the whole trend and tendency of na- 
ture is downward, not upward. This is all per- 
fectly reasonable and philosophical. 

Everyone knows that no effect can rise above 
the level of its cause, and since there is a principle 
in nature which forbids anything to remain sta- 
tionary, the only way for anything which is an 



EXISTENCE OF A PERSONAL GOD. 29 

effect, left to itself, to go, is downward. A cause 
must necessarily be greater than that which it 
causes, unless it completely exhaust itself in that 
which is caused, and even then that which is 
caused cannot possibly be greater than that which 
caused it. That we see certain effects which 
seem to rise higher than their immediate cause, 
does not, in any way, affect this position, for the 
reason that it is plain that if an effect rises higher 
than its immediate cause, we are sure that there 
are other secondary causes which supplement the 
immediate cause, and which must be reckoned 
in the sum of causation. So that the very neces- 
sary philosophy inolved teaches us plainly that 
all physical nature, left to itself, would have to 
exhaust itself in causation, in order to maintain 
an equilibrium; and in case it did not exhaust 
itself, all sequence would necessarily be on the 
down grade. So, as Nature does not exhaust her- 
self in causation, her sequences are therefore 
tending downward, not upward. So we conclude 
that all observation of Nature's workings, and all 
sound reasoning, dispute the contention of mod- 
ern evolutionists, and establish, beyond question, 
the very antithesis, or opposite, as to the truth 
concerning the workings of physical nature. It 
ought to be said that the position here shown to 
be the correct one concerning physical nature, is 



30 THE GOSPEL IN NATURE. 

exactly that which is set forth in the Scriptures. 
"Cursed is the ground for thy sake ; in toil shalt 
thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns and 
thistles shall it bring forth unto thee" (Genesis 
3:17, 18). This curse is pronounced upon the 
ground for man's sake. How for man's sake? 
For one thing at least; that is, that it might not 
be a good place for man to live in, and at the same 
time deny the doctrine of the Bible, which teaches 
us that depravity, moral blight and imperfection, 
the tendency to moral degradation and eternal 
death, rests on his spirit, as well as his body. 

In contrasting these two theories, I have not 
deemed it necessary to distinguish between Mate- 
rialistic, and what has been denominated Theistic 
Evolution, for the reason that my contention ap- 
plies with equal force against both theories. The 
only difference between the two theories is that 
Theistic Evolution predicates the existence of a 
personal God, who, it is claimed, designed the 
whole physical system. As I see it, both theories 
rest upon false contentions and are subversive of 
all observations of the real workings of physical 
nature. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE EXISTENCE OF A PERSONAL GOD. 

As Seen in Design in the Physical Creation and in the 
Nature of Man. 

It is proposed to show that the physical cre- 
ation displays design and adaptation of means 
to intelligent ends and purposes, which no sane 
person can believe it conceived and worked out 
within itself, without outside interference; and 
that man himself is a type, on a small scale, of the 
person who must have designed and constructed 
the physical universe. 

In the very beginning it should be stated that 
whether the physical universe has been brought 
through various stages to its present cosmic con- 
dition through long processes of evolution, or 
development; or came forth from the Creator's 
hand mainly as we now observe it to be ; or, if in 
the process of the development of the physical 
creation, the Creator has interposed, adding life 
or force here and there from time to time, still, 



32 THE GOSPEL IN NATURE. 

the evidence for the existence of a personal God, 
introduced in this chapter, is unaffected, be the 
theory what it may, in regard to the method by 
which the physical universe has come to what we 
now observe it to be. Certainly we have it as it 
now appears, and we have man as he is. The 
contention here is, that howsoever the physical 
universe came to its present cosmic state, and 
howsoever man came to be what we observe him 
now to be, the perfect design displayed in the 
physical universe must have been conceived, and 
the working out of that design and purpose must 
have been accomplished by a person who pos- 
sessed — of course to a larger degree — the attri- 
butes possessed by man himself; with additional 
attributes and powers which man does not pos- 
sess, yet to some knowledge of which a study of 
man leads us. 

That the perfect design displayed in physical 
nature could not have been conceived by matter 
itself, would seem impossible to deny. Even if it 
be granted that matter, as we have it, possessed 
of all its properties and force — that physical na- 
ture, as a whole, appears to us to be a wonderfully 
constructed machine, apparently one of perpetual 
motion — yet as to who designed and constructed 
the machine, or gave to matter its properties and 
force, is a question that must be answered, in 



EXISTENCE OF A PERSONAL GOD. 33 

order to give rest to the inquiring mind. That 
things are capable of conceiving perfect design 
and adaptation of means to intelligent ends, is 
unthinkable. To say that matter itself designed 
itself, and invested itself with all its possibilities, 
is absurd. Then to say that little atoms of mat- 
ter, either singly or "in convention assembled," 
planned the universe; set the planets in their 
orbits, according to the nicest mathematical cal- 
culation; designed the human body, with all its 
organs and functions; adapted the light to the 
eye, the atmosphere to the lungs, the food to hun- 
ger, the water to thirst, and so on, is utterly ab- 
surd. And I question if there ever was, or ever 
will be, a sane person who really believed or can 
believe in such a monstrous absurdity. Even if 
the evolutionary theory is accepted, with its as- 
sumption of the existence of the principles of 
"natural selection" and the "survival of the fit- 
test" as facts in the natural physical order, still 
one cannot believe that such intelligent purpose 
and design came into existence by accident, or 
were conceived by blind, unintelligent atoms of 
matter which have no hearts to feel, no heads to 
think, and no hands with which to work. 

It should be stated that the acceptance of the 
evolutionary theory really demands the exercise of 
more far-reaching intelligence, more intricate 



34 THE GOSPEL IN NATURE. 

manipulation, adaptation, etc., in the Creator, 
than any other theory extant. To say that a fire- 
mist, a protoplasm, was invested with a poten- 
tiality which was capable of expressing itself, un- 
aided by outside interference, in a universe of suns 
and systems; and of producing all the complex, 
beautiful and useful forms of living plants and 
animals on our earth, from a single primordial 
germ of life, is to invest the creator with an 
intelligence and foresight that would render him 
as great or greater than the Jehovah of the Chris- 
tian's faith. The more remote the final purpose 
stands from the beginning of the processes which 
are intended to accomplish it ; the longer the time 
required, and the greater the number of influ- 
ences, forces and instrumentalities involved in 
the processes, the greater the sagacity, wisdom, 
and foresight required in the inventor, or creator, 
or designer. By so much, for instance, as the 
linotype machine is more complex, not only form- 
ing letters, but^moulding them into type for the 
printing press, required more foresight and sa- 
gacity to invent it than were required to invent 
the simplest typewriter, by so much more does the 
evolutionary theory require higher wisdom, 
clearer foresight, etc., in the creator, it would 
seem, than any other theory. There would seem 
to be so many more contingencies to provide for ; 



EXISTENCE OF A PERSONAL GOD. 35 

so many elements, forces, influences and relations 
to be reckoned with, that the creator required by 
the evolutionary theory would be lost to us, in 
the depths of omnipotence and omniscience, far 
more completely than would the Creator of the 
universe, upon any other theory. 

The manifestations of design or foreordina- 
tion in physical nature are so abundant that it 
would seem scarcely necessary to call attention to 
them. Everywhere is to be seen the perfectly 
thought-out plans of the Creator. If our investi- 
gations were confined to the human body alone, 
the evidence of forethought, or predestination and 
foreordination, is so abundant that it would seem 
unnecessary to adduce further demonstration. 

Take, for instance, the digestive organs of the 
human body — what a wonderfully contrived 
chemical laboratory is the human stomach ! The 
food is taken into it, dissolved — digested — and 
separated into its several constituent elements, 
which are distributed to the several parts of the 
physical system, and the proper portions taken 
up and sent to build up the bony structure, to sup- 
ply the fatty tissue, to sustain the brain cells, to 
preserve the health and strength of the nerves 
which come out in pairs from the base of the 
brain, spreading themselves throughout the entire 
body, resembling the most ingenious system of 



36 THE GOSPEL IN NATURE. 

telegraphic communication imaginable, dissemi- 
nating themselves over the body, with special 
reference to those parts which are exposed to out- 
ward approach; all connected with the brain, the 
center of consciousness. Then consider the lungs, 
into which the atmosphere is taken, and in a mo- 
ment those properties of electricity, oxygen, etc., 
extracted from it, which give to the heart its 
impulse, and which enrich the blood with those 
properties which give life, preserving force and 
activity to the little corpuscles of the blood which 
dart about by an ingenious circulating system, 
propelled by the heart, through the human body, 
as ministers and servants, to sustain, repair in- 
juries, and so on; while, by the exhalation of the 
same breath, poisons that would soon produce 
death, are ejected from the system. To say that 
all this nice adjustment of the most intricate ma- 
chine of which we know anything at all — this 
"harp of a thousand strings which stays in tune 
so long" — is the result of "a fortuitous concourse 
of atoms," or of some "primordial properties in 
matter" which never was acted upon by a force 
outside of itself, is to propose the most colossal 
absurdity, as it seems to me, that has ever been 
presented to a credulous world. 

If one turn from these absurd contentions to 
the theory that a self -existent, infinite Being — a 



EXISTENCE OF A PERSONAL GOD. 37 

Person — who is Himself not an effect in any 
sense whatsoever, but who is possessed of infi- 
nite wisdom, power, justice, goodness, righteous- 
ness, truth, mercy and holiness; whose very 
essence is Love; a being of whom it might be said 
man was made in His image — a person, capable 
of thinking, willing and acting, and yet abso- 
lutely without limtiations ; who conceived, planned 
and constructed the physical universe; ordained 
its laws, established its principles, gave to matter 
its properties and force, foreordained it to be 
the foundation of a great cosmic universe; who 
set it in motion, prescribed its boundaries, intro- 
duced life of all kinds upon our planet; who has 
not forgotten His creation, but presides over it; 
who sustains it; works all change upon material 
things by principles and laws created and enacted 
by Him, interposing when He sees fit ; manipulat- 
ing the principles and forces of His own great 
Kingdom; presiding over it all; preserving it all 
from universal crash, anarchy and wreck — thus 
to turn is like emerging from the grimy slime of 
a cesspool of darkness and filth, and standing 
upon some sunlit, breeze-kissed Alpine height. 
The material universe seems no longer a relent- 
less machine that grinds on regardless of human 
cries and tears, but the schoolhouse in which the 
great Teacher has placed upon pillar and wall, 



38 THE GOSPEL IN NATURE. 

and ceiling and dome, in hieroglyphic demonstra- 
tion, the lessons which He would have His chil- 
dren learn; that they may have wrought into the 
very fiber of their spiritual being and character 
the wisdom and goodness of God; that they may 
know Him, and Jesus Christ whom He sent to re- 
deem them from sin and its curse. 

Then, in order that we may know Him, He 
has told us that He created man in His own image. 
Hence the very best means of knowing God is to 
be found in the study of man himself, who, of 
all His creatures, is the only one that God declares 
was made in His own "likeness and image." So 
let us turn to man, and, as the mathematician 
would say, "raise to the highest power" all the 
attributes and powers that belong to him, and 
we will have a person who will fill up the measure 
of the demands of pure reason, as to the being 
who conceived and created the physical universe. 

Of course God is the only absolute person, and 
He is the only absolute thinker — the only absolute 
Creator — and yet He has revealed to us person- 
ality in man. Man thinks and wills and acts. 
He foreordains and predestinates. He, in a way, 
creates. By the simple manipulation and com- 
bination of the laws, principles and forces of 
physical nature, and by the combination of ele- 
mentary portions of chemical substances, he, in 



EXISTENCE OF A PERSONAL GOD. 39 

a way, creates, or brings into existence, that 
which did not exist before. There is no dynamite 
in the natural physical creation. Dynamite is a 
creation which man wrought by a combination 
that he brought into existence by experiment 
and by a mathematical calculation. He has 
changed the whole face of the earth. He could do 
it because he is a person, like God. He possesses 
that which is, in a manner, king over material 
things and forces. God gave to a bird the power 
to fly through the air ; man makes a ship fly, but 
it will be a long time before he comes up to the 
flight of the eagle as to safety and dexterity. 

Man, like God, is a free being. God made 
him absolutely free, within a small sphere. He 
can choose. He does choose sometimes to violate 
God's laws, both physical, moral and spiritual; 
then God places a "flaming sword" between him 
and the "tree of life." The freedom of man, and 
his power to choose, are circumscribed, it is true ; 
and when man passes beyond his limits, then the 
forces of the great Kingdom of God take him in 
hand. A man is free to climb up on the dome of 
the Capitol building at Washington — and to 
thrust himself off toward the granite below; but 
when he goes so far, the Sovereign God takes 
him in hand. Up to his limit, however, man is 
free, like God. Man knows right from wrong, 



40 THE GOSPEL IN NATURE. 

like God. The possibility to govern an entire 
community by the same code of laws, is in this 
fact of an almost universal agreement among 
men as to standards of moral rectitude. "But," 
you say, "man is a sinner in the government of 
God, and therefore is not like Him." Even so; 
the blessed Bible tells us that. But what is meant 
by man being created in the likeness of God, is 
that he is like God in the kind of a being, like a 
bad apple tree is like a good one in kind; like a 
bad man is like a good man in kind. Man is like 
God in his attributes, we may say. Love, justice, 
power, wisdom, righteousness, truth, mercy, good- 
ness, are all attributes which may be thought of 
as pertaining to a man. Men have offspring ; so 
has God. Men are not bound by fixed physical 
laws, in all their ways. Men choose to do this, or 
that, every day of their lives; and choosing im- 
plies, necessarily, unfixedness. 

Men know they choose, and that they 
are not controlled in all things by any fixed 
law. So they make appeals to each other, 
and make requests of each other — pray to each 
other. They know that their requests may or may 
not be granted. The matter of choice makes the 
differences in the structures men build, and they 
are not all alike; the fact is, no two of them are, 
perhaps, exactly alike. What man constructs is 



EXISTENCE OF A PERSONAL GOD. 41 

in this respect somewhat like what God has made. 
God did not create any two persons exactly alike. 

My friend, quit facing the mud to find God. 
Come up to the hill-top, the highest peak in all 
God's physical creation. Study man; stand on 
the lofty eminence and you will get a clearer 
view of Heaven. This is only fair to the Maker. 
Don't try to pass judgment upon the architect by 
gazing upon the pile of material, and the trenches 
for the foundation. Wait, see the temple, with 
its splendid columns, its lofty dome, its frescoed 
ceilings; and from the finished structure study 
the architect. Men need not grope in darkness 
concerning the kind of being the Creator is. He 
has told them that man is made in His likeness 
and image; and even if He had not told them, 
they all admit that man is himself the last and 
noblest piece of creation — the top-end of the evo- 
lution. Then why not stand upon the top to see 
Him who is admittedly over all? Why go back 
to the slime of the sea? 

Now, in conclusion, take man, with his best 
ideas of mathematics, of philosophy, of chemistry, 
of physiology, of astronomy, of psychology, of 
justice, of truth, of righteousness, of love, of 
mercy, of goodness, of power, of personality ; take 
away from him all limitations of sin, and mortal- 
ity, and death, all physical limitations to the 



42 THE GOSPEL IN NATURE. 

senses of his being. Let him see all as he now 
sees part; let him feel all as he now feels part,; 
let him hear all as he now hears part; let him 
taste all as he now tastes part; so that finally he 
knows all as he now knows part, and who have 
you? 



CHAPTER III. 

THE TRIUNE NATURE OF GOD. 

It is proposed to show that men are com- 
pelled, by the physical creation, to accept as true, 
even though there is involved in it that which is 
beyond their power fully to comprehend, the mys- 
tery which is involved in the doctrine of the tri- 
une nature of God. The teaching of the Scrip- 
tures concerning the trinity in the God-head, is, 
that there is one God, who is of one essence, and 
that He is composed of three persons: The 
Father, Son and Holy Spirit ; that God the Father 
is seen in the Son, and felt in the Spirit; that in 
the Kingdom of Heaven these three persons oc- 
cupy different positions, and fulfill different of- 
fices and functions ; and yet, all agree in one and 
are of the same essence. 

Now, proceeding upon the ground of the 
contention of this book, it is proposed to show 
that the physical creation compels men to ac- 
cept as true the mysteries that are involved in 
this doctrine; at least so far as men are able 



44 THE GOSPEL IN NATURE. 

to apprehend it at all. In other words, the 
Creator has demonstrated the problem of trin- 
ity in unity, as upon a blackboard, in more 
ways than one. In the first place, He has cre- 
ated three kingdoms in physical nature, which 
are composed of one essence. The mineral is the 
essence of the vegetable and animal kingdoms in 
physical nature : here are three in one. Dissolve 
both the vegetable and animal and they "return 
to the dust." These kingdoms in physical nature 
demonstrate something more than the mere mys- 
tery of three in one: they in a way demonstrate 
the respective positions and offices of the three 
persons in the God-head. The mineral kingdom 
answers to God the Father in the Divine Trinity. 
He is "all, and in all," and will be "all and in all" 
when the Son and Spirit shall have "delivered up 
the Kingdom unto the Father." When the vege- 
table and animal kingdoms have fulfilled their 
missions, they deliver up all to the mineral king- 
dom. "Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou 
return." The vegetable kingdom is the medi- 
ator between the mineral and the animal king- 
doms, like Jesus the Son in the Divine Trinity. 
The vegetable seems in a way to partake of the 
nature of both the mineral and animal kingdoms, 
and thus to demonstrate the office work of Jesus 
the Son, who partakes of the human and the 



TRIUNE NATURE OF GOD. 45 

divine natures and becomes a mediator between 
God and man, reconciling man to God, the source 
of his spiritual life, just as the vegetable recon- 
ciles the animal to the mineral, which, after all, 
is the source of the sustenance of its life. 

We have had the dispensation of the Father, 
then the dispensation of the Son, then the dis- 
pensation of the Spirit, in an ascending order 
similar to the change of the mineral to the vege- 
table and the vegetable to the animal. 

In the second place, man himself is a triune 
being — a trinity in unity. He has a physical, an 
intellectual, and a spiritual nature. These are 
distinct from each other. These different na- 
tures are differently developed in different men. 
One is physically strong and intellectually weak. 
Another is intellectually strong and morally and 
spiritually weak. These natures of man thrive 
upon different kinds of food. The study of 
mathematics may not develop a man's moral and 
spiritual nature. Many a thief is a good mathe- 
matician. The eating of beefsteak does not neces- 
sarily train the intellect. The highest spiritual 
vision may be enjoyed by a person in a failing phy- 
sique. Yet man is one, and there exists a very 
close relation between body, mind and spirit. Or 
we may take still another view of man, in which 
the Creator has demonstrated something of the 



46 THE GOSPEL IN NATURE. 

doctrine of the Trinity. He thinks, feels, or wills, 
and acts. His thinking, we may say, answers to 
God the Father, his feeling or willing, to God the 
Spirit, and his acting to God the Son. It is one 
act, but his act exists in three distinct states, we 
may say: First, as a pure mental picture, alto- 
gether intangible; second, as a settled purpose, 
and yet intangible; and, third, as a tangible ex- 
pression. Or yet again : if we think of only the 
mental and spiritual features of what a man does, 
we have a trinity. He thinks, feels and wills. 
There is in his composite nature that which 
thinks, that which feels, and that which wills. 
He is conscious of the action of this triune nature. 
He may think, and neither feel nor will. He may 
think and feel, and not exercise his will. Then he 
may think, feel and will. 

In every enterprise of man there is a dem- 
onstration of the Trinity. There is the end, 
the method and the power. These answer, in a 
way, to God the Father, God the Son and God the 
Holy Spirit. 

The end or purpose for which a railroad is 
built may be said to be to convey passengers 
and freight from one point to another. The 
end in view is an important part of the en- 
terprise, and, in a sense, includes all. It is 
the essential thing that runs through all. 



TRIUNE NATURE OF GOD. 47 

But there must be method by which to 
accomplish such desirable ends. The method 
is the road grade, the ties, the steel rails, the rock 
ballast, the engine, the engineer and so on. But 
one other thing is needed — the power. It is one 
enterprise with three factors necessary to its ac- 
complishment. 

In the education of a boy there are these 
three elements. The developed body, the well- 
informed intellect, and well-rounded character 
are the end. The teacher, the school, the text- 
book, the apparatus and demonstration, consti- 
tute the method. The power is the intellect of 
the student. 

In the great scheme of salvation God the 
Father may be said to be the end of the whole 
undertaking. Godliness, or God-likeness, is the 
end proposed in the salvation of man. Christ the 
Son is the method by which it is proposed to bring 
men to God. He is the Way. By His footsteps 
He marks out the way to God. To be like Him 
is the way of approach". He gives us the exam- 
ple. He provides the atonement for sin. He 
lives to intercede for sinners. His perfect right- 
eousness is the ground of a sinner's acceptance 
with God. The Holy Spirit is the power. He 
imparts spiritual life; He comforts, sustains, 
strengthens and overcomes for sinners. 



48 THE GOSPEL IN NATURE. 

So that in the matter of salvation, as a divine 
scheme, or enterprise, the three necessary ele- 
ments or factors which are required in every 
scheme of man are respectively supplied by the 
three persons in the God-head. The same prin- 
ciples apply in our approach to God the Father in 
prayer. We approach the Father through Jesus 
the Son, by the aid of the power of the Holy Spirit. 

I have lately come across a beautiful demon- 
stration of the doctrine of the Trinity in the fol- 
lowing analysis of light. Here it is : 

"Light is one substance with three proper- 
ties, the actinic, luminiferous and calorific. In 
spite of the fact that the properties of light are 
distinct, they cannot be separated from each 
other. Where the one is, the others are. Where 
the actinic is, the luminiferous and the calorific 
are. Where the calorific is, the actinic and the 
luminiferous are. The actinic can neither be seen 
nor felt. The calorific cannot be seen, but may 
be felt. The luminiferous is both seen and felt. 
and is the revelation and expression of the other 
two. What an absurdity it would be to reject any 
two of these properties and call the remaining 
one light. Nay, light is one, and yet three. Light 
is three, and yet one. 

"And Holy Scripture says God is light. God 
is one substance — one God and yet three persons 



TRIUNE NATURE OF GOD. 49 

Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In spite of the fact 
that these personalities are distinct, they cannot 
be separated from each other. Where the one is, 
the others are. Where the Father is, the Son and 
Spirit are. Where the Son is, the Father and 
Spirit are. Where the Spirit is, the Father and 
Son are. The Father can be neither seen nor felt. 
The Spirit cannot be seen, but may be felt. The 
Son can be both seen and felt, and is the revela- 
tion and expression of the other two. What an 
absurdity it would be to reject any two of these 
persons of the God-head and call the remaining 
one God! Nay, God is one, and yet three. God 
is three, and yet one." 

The Unitarian denies the existence of the 
Son and Spirit as persons in the Divine Trinity. 
He must therefore approach God in his own name, 
by the power of his own spirit. 

So we may say that the physical creation 
demonstrates the existence of trinity in unity, and 
compels men to accept, as true, all that mystery 
which is involved in the triune nature of the one 
personal God. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE CHARACTER AND ATTRIBUTES OF GOD. 

It is proposed to show that the physical cre- 
ation reveals the character and attributes of the 
Creator; that the character and attributes 
ascribed to God in the Bible are identical with 
those necessarily possessed by the Creator of the 
physical universe; that the Creator was not only 
a person, but that He was a certain kind of a 
person. 

Now it ought not to be questioned for a mo- 
ment, that the laws enacted and the principles 
established by the Creator in the physical cre- 
ation, reveal, so far as they reveal anything at all, 
the character of the Creator. We know that the 
laws and principles which a man lays down as the 
rule of his conduct, portray, in the most certain 
way possible, the character of the man. If his 
plans are wise he reveals himself to have been a 
wise man; if his plans are just and right, they 
show that he was a just and righteous man. "Ac- 
tions speak louder than words," is a most familiar 



52 THE GOSPEL IN NATURE. 

adage, the truth of which may be relied upon. 
The architect may occupy volumes, and descant 
upon his skill as a workman; but a splendid tem- 
ple, which is the product of his architectural skill, 
would be more convincing. God's works pro- 
claim Him: "He hath not left Himself without 
a witness;" "The heavens declare the glory of 
God, and the firmament showeth His handiwork." 
I take it that every attribute, ascribed to God 
in the Bible, is demonstrated to have belonged to 
the Creator of the physical universe. His Per- 
sonality has already been referred to. There is 
every evidence in the physical creation to show 
that the Creator must have been possessed of the 
power to think, will and act; and the exercise of 
those powers necessarily imply personality. That 
the Creator was possessed of the attribute of 
Wisdom would seem too plain to be questioned. 
There runs through the whole physical creation 
the most overpowering displays of transcendant 
wisdom. From the balancing of the planets, to 
the formation of the wing of the tiniest insect, 
there is convincing evidence of the most care- 
fully thought-out plan. All our scientific knowl- 
edge is, we may say, only the discovery of 
God's knowledge. No law or principle in the 
physical universe has been added by us. We sim- 
ply fasten to our caps the little flickering taper of 



ATTRIBUTES OF GOD. 53 

human reason, and, like a miner, we go down into 
the depths of the mine of God's fathomless wis- 
dom, and simply discover a few things. 0, the 
depth of the wisdom of God ! 

His creation plainly shows that He knows 
all truth in its various relations to the great 
kingdom of truth. Take a single little ex- 
ample of the scope of His knowledge: All 
things in physical nature, we are told, expand 
in heat and contract in cold, with one single excep- 
tion, and that exception is only partial. The ex- 
ception is water; and, perhaps water itself, con- 
tracts when cold, down to a certain temperature, 
then it expands, at the freezing point. Why this 
isolated exception? Plainly to the end that the 
iee might float, so as to form at the top, where the 
sun's rays could strike it. Otherwise the lake 
would freeze at the bottom, which, doubtless, 
would prove a tremendous disaster. God knew; 
He knows. 

Again: No one can deny the Power of 
God. The awful forces of nature were con- 
ceived by Him. One cannot look upon the great 
rocky heights in the awful mountain gorges, with- 
out being impressed with the power o± God. And 
whoever witnessed the surging of the billows of 
the mighty ocean, when driven by the mad hur- 
ricane, without being overwhelmed with the 



54 THE GOSPEL IN NATURE. 

thought of the majesty and power of the Maker? 
But think of the weight of the planets, suspended 
and held by the tugging power of gravita- 
tion ! Imagine them breaking away in confusion, 
and dashing together in an awful thundering 
crash ! How can a sane man live in God's world 
without being impressed with the majesty of His 
power? 

But one must also believe in the Good- 
ness of the Creator. Take the creature man as an 
example. The Creator might have so constituted 
man's physical body as to have made every physi- 
cal sense a minister of pain, and only pain con- 
tinually. Instead, it is perfectly plain that the 
Maker intended every physical sense to be a 
minister of pleasure. How many beauti- 
ful tints and colors, and graces of form, 
there are to delight the eyesight! How much of 
sweet melody and harmony to charm the ear! 
He has filled the forests with the singing of the 
birds, and the universe with the "music of the 
spheres." How many precious viands He has 
provided to satisfy the taste, and sweet odors to 
bewitch the smelling; softness for the touch, and 
so on. Then, God has blessed the tiny little cre- 
atures of earth with their instincts, so also all 
the animals ; and it is the exception to see one in 
suffering and want. They are taught self-pres- 



ATTRIBUTES OF GOD. 55 

ervation, and given weapons of defense, and the 
ability to escape. The goodness of the Maker is 
upon His creation. 

Then there is Mercy. If there is any differ- 
ence, He has provided for the "survival of the 
weakest," instead of the "survival of the fittest," 
meaning the "strongest." He has provided mercy 
for the "sinner," as seen in physical ministries to 
bind up the wounds caused by the violation of 
physical law. The whole remedial system in physi- 
cal nature attests this. There are antidotes and 
remedies for those who, by the violation of physi- 
cal laws and principles, have brought upon them- 
selves the penalties annexed to those laws. You 
wound a tree, and nature has a way of healing 
the wound. You can find prints of the wood- 
man's ax toward the center of trees, which have 
been healed and grown-over by the healing min- 
istries in the life of the tree. The same is true 
of wounds made upon the human body. As a rule, 
when the wound is made, there immediately rushes 
to the scene of the violation of the law, and the 
infliction of the consequent penalty, so to speak, 
a multitude of the red corpuscles of the blood, 
which begin an effort to repair the damage and 
relieve the sufferer. The fever about a wounol 
in the human body is produced by the intent ac- 
tivity of these little workers of the blood. The 



56 THE GOSPEL IN NATURE. 

work of repair is often attended by more pain, 
but the process of healing is the reward for the 
suffering, which is itself a demonstration of an- 
other great principle in the Maker's arrangement- 
Then there are abundant demonstrations of 
the attribute of Justice as belonging to the Creator 
of the physical universe. There is a principle of 
reciprocity — a law of compensation — which runs 
through the whole creation. The laws of the 
physical universe are administered with the ut- 
most precision and impartiality; and if one could 
understand and trace the entire system, in all its 
bearings and relations, I am sure he would find it 
to comport not only with the teachings of the 
Scriptures with regard to equity and justice, but 
also with his own intuitive ideas of those princi- 
ples. Nature invariably proportions her gifts to 
her requirements, and her requirements to her 
gifts. 

If one will observe the workings of human 
society with a clear vision, he will see that there 
is an unvarying law, backed up by every demon- 
stration in physical nature, that "whatsoever a 
man soweth, that shall he also reap." This is just. 
The man who sows hate should reap hate. The 
man who sows love should reap love, and so on. 
It is only a partial view of the natural order that 
questions the justice of the Creator. For in- 



ATTRIBUTES OF GOD. 57 

stance, men observe that, in the natural workings 
of human society, the consequences of the con- 
duct of one fall upon another ; but this is true of 
beneficent as well as perverse consequences; and 
certainly it would have been an unjust arrange- 
ment if one were denied the privilege of assuming 
the adverse consequences of the conduct of an- 
other, provided he chose to do so. So that, after 
all, there seems to run through all the natural or- 
der an exact balance which comports with the per- 
fect scales of justice. 

Then, one is everywhere impressed that the 
Creator is possessed of the attribute of Love, es- 
pecially love to man. He has made rich provision 
for every physical necessity, and not only supplied 
the actual necessities of human existence upon 
the earth, but has filled up the cup of luxury as 
well. He has given to man the power of reason, 
by which he subjugates and employs all physical 
things and forces, and, by intelligent manipula- 
tion, causes them to contribute to his own exist- 
ence and happiness. The notion that the physi- 
cal creation defines its Maker as a being possessed 
of only the attributes of Wisdom and Power, is 
plainly wrong. There is everywhere the most 
convincing evidence of His Mercy, Goodness and 
Love. He has plainly shown us how He even 
overrules the adverse conditions of our earthly 



58 THE GOSPEL IN NATURE. 

existence, and causes them ultimately to contrib- 
ute to the good of His creatures, especially to the 
good of man. If one thinks of the earthly abode 
of man as a school-house in which man necessarily 
learns by contrasts, he can see plainly the love and 
goodness of the Creator in permitting the evil, as 
well as in creating the good. 



CHAPTER V. 

DEPRAVITY AND HEREDITY. 

It is proposed to show that men are morally 
depraved; that the natural tendency is to moral 
degradation, and that man lives in a physical 
world where imperfection and the tendency to 
degradation and death are written upon every 
useful thing; a physical condition where man 
would have to separate himself from every other 
physical thing about him and make himself an 
isolated exception, if he would claim per- 
fection for himself, in any respect. That man 
and all the rest of God's physical crea- 
tion, without outside interference, faces toward 
degradation is self-evident; and no good in our 
planet ever starts from beneath or from the dead 
level, but comes down from above. It cannot be 
denied that among all living creatures, upon our 
earth, there are two great opposite principles 
working. They are life and death. Which of 
these is always victorious in the struggle? The 
final victory, so far as we observe on our planet, 



60 THE GOSPEL IN NATURE. 

in all physical nature, perches upon the black 
flag. Finally, every living plant and animal suc- 
cumbs. What does this sad fact demonstrate? 
Why, plainly, that the principles of decline, of dis- 
solution, of decay, of death, prevail over the prin- 
ciple of life, in our poor earth. As has already 
been shown in a previous chapter, the very oppo- 
site of the contention of modern evolutionists as 
to the prevailing tendencies in physical nature is 
thus demonstrated to be true. Instead of the "sur- 
vival of the fittest," nothing survives ; and if left 
to itself, the unfit, the useless and vile triumph 
over the good and useful. 

That everything in physical nature is pos- 
sessed of possibilities of improvement, is freely 
admitted ; and it would seem to be this fact, plain- 
ly observable in physical nature, which has in- 
fluenced many to suppose that there existed in 
physical nature an upward tendency. But all 
observation plainly shows that these possibilities 
are realized only when the higher stoops to lift 
the lower. 

The vegetable and animal kingdoms — vege- 
table and animal life — take up the dirt, transmut- 
ing it into higher and more beautiful forms. 
Nothing in physical nature transmutes itself. 
The method, it is true, is by transmutation, but 
in every instance the selection of the higher type 



DEPRAVITY AND HEREDITY. 61 

is external ; that is, everything in physical nature, 
left to itself, degenerates ; but everything in physi- 
cal nature has possibilities of advancement when 
taken in hand by a force or power above itself. 
Man lifts physical things to a higher plane by his 
own intelligent selection and by the dint of toil 
to arrest the downward tendency which inheres in 
the very nature of every physical thing. This con- 
dition furnishes man with the scenes of struggle 
which are intended to develop him. If the "sur- 
vival of the fittest," meaning the highest, the best, 
and the principle of "natural selection" were the 
universal laws of physical nature, then man might 
lie down on flowery beds of physical ease, and 
sleep himself to the top, while everything else 
would be a close second in the march to glory. 
But man finds these high sounding, catchy expres- 
sions are not to be depended upon. He finds in 
physical nature that, while the good is involuntary, 
the bad is voluntary, and that the earth is a hot- 
bed of thorns and thistles. So that his opportu- 
nity to develop muscle is in digging up, and burn- 
ing up, a spontaneous growth of thorns and this- 
tles. Gen. 1 :28 : "And God blessed them (Adam 
and Eve) , and God said unto them, Be fruitful and 
multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it." 
"Replenish," that is, "fill up again" that which 
is lacking in the earth; "subdue," that is, "bring 



62 THE GOSPEL IN NATURE. 

under, conquer by force, or the exertion of su- 
perior power, and bring into permanent subjec- 
tion; to overpower so as to disable from further 
resistance ; to overpower and destroy the force of ; 
to overcome by discipline, bring under, tame; to 
overcome by persuasion, or other mild means; to 
reduce to tenderness; to make mellow, break 
(land), destroy (weeds)." — Webster. 

Herein is the "sweat of the face." What 
need, pray, would there be of replenishing and 
subduing an earth wherein "natural selection" 
and the "survival of the fittest" were regnant, 
universal principles? What would there be lack- 
ing to "replenish" ? What would there be to "sub- 
due" ? The earth would "replenish" and "subdue" 
herself, if the contentions of modern evolution 
were true. Every sane man must know that 
these contentions are the exact antithesis of all 
known facts concerning the tendencies in physical 
nature, and that the whole struggle of man is to 
overcome these tendencies to degradation and 
death, and that nothing in physical nature can be 
depended upon to lift itself, but must be lifted, if 
lifted at all, by a power above itself. 

And all this struggle to lift that which is be- 
neath him, is intended to burn into the intellectual 
and spiritual fiber of man's being the great fact, 
that he himself must be lifted, if lifted at all, to 



DEPRAVITY AND HEREDITY. 63 

a higher plane of spiritual being, by some person 
who is above him. 

But, after all, we need not go outside of man's 
own consciousness to demonstrate the fact of this 
natural tendency to moral degradation. Every 
man knows how easy and natural it is to do wrong, 
and that at the very threshold of right living 
stands the principle of self-denial; and this es- 
tablishes in a way our contention here, that is, that 
man's unrenewed moral nature is, like all physical 
things about him, inclined to go wrong. I have 
never heard a parent, interested in the well-being 
of his child, exhorting him to do wrong. It is not 
necessary. On the other hand every one who 
brings up children knows, all too well, how diffi- 
cult it often is to keep them in the path of recti- 
tude. Line upon line, precept upon precept, edu- 
cation, exhortation, admonition, entreaty — every 
possible means is employed, and yet they go 
wrong. 

Almost every person knows, or at least 
holds the theory, that happiness is bound up in 
right-doing, and that misery follows upon wrong- 
doing ; and yet men go straight forward in wrong- 
doing. It would really seem that not even the 
lower animals are so depraved as man. Perhaps 
no animal on earth, except man, would violate, 
even an instinct, and go straight forward to death ; 



64 THE GOSPEL IN NATURE. 

but man will violate all reason, and even knowl- 
edge, and go straight forward to his own physical 
ruin. Many a man is under the domination of an 
appetite, or a passion, the indulgence of which he 
knows has led him, and will lead him, to an awful 
doom ; and yet he plunges over the precipice, with 
his eyes open, to the awful consequences. This 
demonstrates, beyond question, that a "cog has 
slipped," as we say, in man's moral machine. He 
is inclined wrong. If men were not depraved it 
would require as much persuasion to induce them 
to do wrong as to do right. 

The truth is, that, but for the fact of this de- 
pravity, there would seem to be no chance 
to develop righteous character in men. 
There could be no righteous character developed 
if all their natural inclinations were to 
do right. Then men could, and would, do 
right from selfish motives, which would seem to 
be a contradiction, since selfishness is the very 
tap-root, we may say, of wrong-doing. In the 
very nature of virtue, and in our innate concep- 
tions of the moral value of human conduct, the 
real moral import of one's course of conduct is 
estimated by the amount of self-sacrifice involved, 
provided of course that the sacrifice is made pure- 
ly and solely for the sake of the right. 

The man, for instance, who is under the in- 



DEPRAVITY AND HEREDITY. 65 

fluence of an awful appetite for strong drink, and 
who crucifies that appetite for the sake of sober, 
righteous character, and for the sake of those who 
would suffer on account of his inebriate life, de- 
serves far more credit, and develops far more of 
righteous character, than the man who leads a 
like temperate life, but who has no inclination to 
strong drink. The man who is under the influ- 
ence of the power and passion of lust, but who 
crucifies his beastly nature, in the interest, and 
for the sake of virtuous, clean living, deserves all 
honor, and develops mighty character. 

Hence, in the very nature of our earthly exist- 
ence, it could not result in the development of the 
highest character and virtue, if men were not pos- 
sessed of a depraved nature, which precipitates 
the conflict in which they are compelled to sacri- 
fice self for the sake of righteousness and virtue. 
We need not here discuss the degree of this de- 
pravity, or the extent of it. The deeper and the 
darker it is, the higher the righteousness possible 
to those who resist it. 

In every man's physical nature the seeds of 
decay, of dissolution, are developing, and will 
sooner or later produce death, a demonstration of 
the death-working power of depravity, which 
blights the spirit. Do not make the mistake, how- 
ever, of concluding that God's Word teaches that 



66 THE GOSPEL IN NATURE. 

any man is eternally lost because he is depraved. 
His sin is in yielding, as his virtue is in resisting. 

HEREDITY. 

The Bible plainly declares that this sinfulness, 
or depravity of the race, is hereditary; that is, it 
came upon the race through the sin of the progen- 
itor of the race. Many persons repudiate the 
teaching of the Scriptures upon this point, for the 
reason that it seems to them contrary to their no- 
tions of equity and justice that anyone should be 
called upon to bear the consequences of another's 
sins ; and yet, men are compelled to accept as true, 
whether just or not, precisely the same principle 
working in the arrangement of the physical crea- 
tion, and in the plainly observed lives of men all 
about them. The principle of heredity is one of 
the well-known principles working, as is observed, 
in physical nature. There is no doubt of the fact 
that physical infirmities, and perhaps even some 
physical diseases, are transmitted from parents to 
children. And certain we are that on every hand 
we observe men and women constantly, who are 
suffering on account of the wrong-doing of others. 
One generation perpetrates the blunders for 
which succeeding generations suffer. So that we 
may say that the Creator has demonstrated before 
every man's physical eyesight, and to every one's 



DEPRAVITY AND HEREDITY. 67 

observation, the fact that the sins of the parent 
are visited upon the children. 

Distinction should be made, however, be- 
tween sinfulness and guilt. The sinful may not 
be guilty; that is, one may have a sinful nature, 
and not yield to the inclinations of that nature to 
commit sin. In such case, one is not only not 
guilty, but deserves the more credit for doing 
right. 

Persons who do not stop to reflect often avow 
their unbelief in a teaching which "damns the 
race on account of the sin of Adam." In the 
first place, they know that the principle of hered- 
ity is a fact in physical nature, and that through 
the entire earthly existence men and women are 
constantly suffering the consequences of the 
wrong-doing of others. So then one is forced to 
accept the teaching of the Word of God as to de- 
pravity and heredity, so far as the principles in- 
volved are concerned. 

Then, again, the Bible clearly teaches that 
whatever the race, as a race, lost in Adam, the 
race, as a race, gains in Christ; and that by and 
through the fall of the race into sin, and God's 
gracious provision for salvation from sin, there is 
opened to the race a possibility that could not have 
existed but for the fall of man into sin, and the 



68 THE GOSPEL IN NATURE. 

redemption wrought out by Jesus Christ for all 
fallen men. 

So that, after all, men do believe in, must 
see the demonstration of, every principle in- 
volved in depravity and heredity, as taught in the 
Scriptures, demonstrated in physical nature, and 
verified by one's daily observation of that which 
is transpiring about him all the time. 

It should be said that the adoption of the false 
theory of modern evolution inevitably leads to the 
repudiation of the teaching of the Scriptures as to 
depravity, which sets forth the very opposite of 
"natural selection" and the "survival of the fit- 
test" as regnant principles in nature. The man 
who believes that nature, left to herself, tends to 
the highest and the best, will, of course, contend 
that all that is necessary to bring men to the ideal 
state is to see that nature has her way. The real 
necessity for regeneration, and all probability of 
the interposition of outside, divine help in salva- 
tion, is, according to the modern evolution theory, 
not only false philosophy, but unnecessary. All 
that is necessary, according to this theory, is to 
see that what there is in man, naturally, is per- 
mitted to assert itself. 



CHAPTER VI. 

GOVERNMENT. 

It is proposed to show that the physical gov- 
ernment which men observe, with its principles, 
laws, consequences and rewards; in fact, its en- 
tire administration, is identical with that spiritual 
government of God which is revealed in the Bible, 
the only difference being that the one pertains to 
the physical, while the other pertains to the spir- 
itual. 

No sane person can deny that men are under 
two, if not three, aspects of governmental admin- 
istration. There is the physical, psychological, 
and the moral, or spiritual aspects of the govern- 
ment of God, which are recognized by all sane per- 
sons, and of which all men have conscious knowl- 
edge. These three distinct administrations are 
the foundation of three distinct sciences : physical, 
psychological and spiritual, or moral and religious. 
Men recognize and hold that which it is impossible 
for them to deny, that these different administra- 
tions are related to each other in the manner of 



70 THE GOSPEL IN NATURE. 

the scaffolding to a building, we may say. The 
purpose of the physical, that which it is perfectly 
plain that it was intended by the Creator to con- 
serve, subserve and contribute to, is the devel- 
opment and education of the intellectual; while 
the purpose of the intellectual is the building of 
moral character. Every man is so constituted as 
that, even though his conduct may seem to signify 
a different view, he values the intellectual above 
the physical, and the moral above the intellectual. 
We all know that the highest ideal for man is not 
physical or intellectual, but moral. A physically 
strong fool, or an intellectual consummate rascal, 
is not, after all, the special admiration of anybody. 
Every man is so constituted as that he feels and 
knows that if, in the pursuit of the physical and 
intellectual, he fails of righteous character, he 
fails at the top of all human development. So 
that the very purpose of these three different 
phases of governmental administration is con- 
sciously known to all thoughtful persons. 

That the Creator ordained that the physical 
creation should go on, under the domination of 
those principles and laws which arise out of the 
fixed nature of all things, is perfectly clear. It 
is plainly observed, in all the workings of physi- 
cal nature, that the Creator purposed that the very 
existence and continuance of every individual 



GOVERNMENT. 71 

thing in the physical creation, should depend upon 
conformity to those principles and laws, the na- 
ture of which is determined by the inherent na- 
ture of the thing itself, and upon that of all other 
things to which it bears relation. So, we may 
say, that the laws of nature are the laws of being. 
Because this is true, the physical government, 
unlike human governments, requires no "executive 
department." Nature's laws administer them- 
selves, for the reason that her laws arise out of 
and are determined by, the inherent nature of the 
things themselves. So that conformity to these 
principles and laws is indispensable to their exist- 
ence and continuance. Herein is demonstrated 
the exact justice which is guaranteed in the physi- 
cal government. The laws administer themselves, 
and their penalties (if, indeed, the consequences 
of the violation of physical law may be called pen- 
alties) are exactly commensurate with the trans- 
gression, provided no remedy is applied. In hu- 
man government the legislative and the executive 
are in the charge of different parties, so that there 
may be a hiatus between transgressions and con- 
sequences. Not so in the physical government of 
God. The transgression of physical law being a 
violation of the nature of the transgressor, the 
sinner, in the physical government, at once begins 
suffering consequent deterioration. This fact, if 



72 THE GOSPEL IN NATURE. 

understood as true in the spiritual government of 
God, as we shall see further on, will explain cer- 
tain difficulties which some minds have supposed 
they discovered in the teaching of the Scriptures 
concerning God's spiritual government. In the 
divine government, the very same thing is the oc- 
casion of both good and bad consequences ; and the 
very thing which was plainly intended by the 
Creator to produce the most beneficent con- 
sequences, when in right relations, produces 
the most direful consequences when in wrong 
relations. This wise provision in the govern- 
ment of God is intended to dissuade intelli- 
gent beings from a course of conduct that 
brings inevitable disaster, and to fix the blame 
for such disaster, in case it does fall upon His 
creatures, at the proper place. "So that the law 
is holy, and the commandment holy, and right- 
eous and good." "Did then that which is good be- 
come death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that 
it might be shown to be sin, by working death to 
me through that which is good — that through the 
Commandment sin might become exceeding sin- 
ful" (Romans 7:12,13). So Paul declares that 
that which "was ordained unto life" he "found to 
be unto death," and that the perversion was on ac- 
count of sin, or the transgression of law. What 
the Apostle here declares to be true of the good, 



GOVERNMENT. 73 

moral, spiritual "law" of God which was "or- 
dained unto life," is true of the whole physical 
creation. While there is every evidence that all 
the physical creation was intended by the Maker to 
contribute to the happiness and well-being of all 
His creatures, when His laws are obeyed, and all 
right relations are established and maintained, it 
is equally evident that everything in physical na- 
ture becomes a curse to those who disobey law, and 
thus place themselves in wrong relations. This 
arrangement, the Apostle declares, is to the end 
that men may blame "sot," not the Maker or the 
thing made, for the disastrous consequences which 
befall His creatures. The whole physical arrange- 
ment plainly shows that the well-being of the 
things and creatures, is conditioned upon confor- 
mity to law. 

The consequences which attend the violation 
of law in the physical government of the Creator, 
are seen to be both temporal and eternal. There 
are remedies in physical nature for the transgres- 
sor of certain physical laws. These remedies, if 
applied, relieve the suffering of the transgressor 
in the physical government ; but there are certain 
other principles and laws in the physical govern- 
ment, for the transgression of which the trans- 
gressor finds no remedy. The consequences, 
dreadful as they may be, are eternal. So that God 



74 THE GOSPEL IN NATURE. 

demonstrates before men's eyes these features of 
His government; and there is not a sane person, 
after all, who does not really believe in the fact 
of God's government by law, and who does not 
agree that, while there are remedies for the relief 
of the transgressor of some, there are no remedies 
for the transgressor of others of God's laws. 
"There is a sin which is unto death," is as cer- 
tainly declared in physical nature, as it is in the 
Bible. "The soul that sinneth, it shall die," is not 
more certainly true than that "The body that sin- 
neth, it shall die." 

We may say, then, that there is not a sane 
person on the earth who does not believe in the 
fact of "eternal punishment," in the government 
of God. There are people all about us who are 
suffering the changeless, awful consequences of 
the transgression of physical law — men without 
hands, and limbs, and eyes, and so on. We some- 
times hear the question asked: "Would a just 
and merciful God allow a man to suffer eternally 
for sins he committed in the brief period of a life- 
time?" This question should be answered by ask- 
ing another : "Would the Creator of the physical 
universe allow one of his creatures to grope 
through a life-time of sixty years, in total physi- 
cal blindness, on account of the violation of a 
physical law which required only a second to com- 



GOVERNMENT. 75 

mit the awful deed?" The answer to this latter 
question is "Yes, we see demonstrations of the sad 
fact frequently." So that men do believe in eter- 
nal penalties in the government of God. They 
have to. And they know that the enormity of a 
crime does not depend upon the time required to 
commit it. 

Men also believe in the remedial provision in 
physical nature, and they declare their faith when 
they call the physician. They all know that in the 
physical government of God "there is a sin which 
is not unto death" and that there "is a sin which 
is unto death." 

Another thing which is clearly demonstrated 
by all our observation of the government of physi- 
cal nature, is that the sentence of death has al- 
ready been passed upon everything that has physi- 
cal life ; and this for the reason that in all physi- 
cal nature there is the tendency to the violation of 
law, we may say. There is imperfection, that is, 
a constant failure in physical nature to measure 
up to the demands of the principles and laws by 
which the physical universe is governed. And 
so, in every form of life on the earth, there is the 
tendency to dissolution, which finally prevails. 
So that physical nature demonstrates the tendency 
to degeneration, as has been shown in a previous 
chapter, and this tendency exists because of the 



76 THE GOSPEL IN NATURE. 

breaking down, or the violation of law in the 
physical government, which may be observed on 
every hand. 

All this exactly demonstrates the Bible teach- 
ing as to the spiritual government of God, and 
man's spiritual condition, responsibility, and so 
on. As a spiritual being, he is under spiritual 
law. That law is made out by his nature as a 
spiritual being. Consequently his spiritual well- 
being depends upon conformity to that law. The 
spiritual laws of God administer themselves by 
the very same principles by which physical laws 
administer themselves. To violate these laws, 
they being the laws of spiritual being, is to bring 
upon one's self the consequences of spiritual de- 
terioration and death; and that which God or- 
dained to our spiritual life becomes spiritual 
death, when men, by sin, put themselves into 
wrong relation to His moral government. 

It is a philosophical fact, in both the physical 
and spiritual governments of God, if, in fact they 
should be spoken of as separate, that the power of 
any thing, or principle, or law, to bless those who 
are in right relation to such thing, or principle, 
or law, is necessarily measured by their power to 
curse those who are in wrong relations. This is 
as true of kindness and love in the spiritual gov- 
ernment of God as it is of fire, water, or electricity 



GOVERNMENT. 77 

in the physical government of God. Here, as in 
the physical government, the very same thing is 
both a blessing and a curse; both life and death, 
we may say. 

There has been much confusion of late years 
as to "eternal punishment," as it is supposed 
to be taught in the Scriptures. I am of the opin- 
ion that people in general would get a more cor- 
rect impression as to the truth on this subject if 
they would use the term eternal consequences of 
sin," instead of "eternal punishment for sin." To 
represent God as visiting punishment upon sinners 
in His spiritual government by a direct infliction 
— while there could be no impeachment of the Al- 
mighty for so doing — does not represent properly 
either the teaching of the Scriptures, or the teach- 
ing of the demonstrations observed in the work- 
ings of physical nature, upon the subject. The 
Bible declares that "the wages of sin is death," 
and that sin works death by "that which is good" ; 
so that the suffering of the sinner in the govern- 
ment of God is rather a consequence of sin than 
a direct infliction of a penalty on the part of the 
Almighty. We observe in God's physical govern- 
ment that, while He created all things to contrib- 
ute to the happiness and well-being of His crea- 
tures, there is nothing in physical nature which 
may not prove a curse to those who, by the trans- 



78 THE GOSPEL IN NATURE. 

gression of law, put themselves into wrong re- 
lations to it. These are the demonstrations of 
the facts concerning the government of God, in 
the spiritual realm. Men, by the violation of 
the laws of God's spiritual government, put 
themselves into such relations to God, and to all 
the great and blessed principles of His spiritual 
kingdom, as that all that is heaven to the right- 
eous is hell to the unrighteous. The hell of the 
Bible was not "prepared" for men, but "for the 
devil and his angels." The same sun which is 
life and beauty and fragrance to the flower, when 
the flower is in right relation to the sun, is death 
to the flower when it is in wrong relation to the 
sun. To behold God's face is heaven to the saved 
— the righteous — while the unrighteous are de- 
scribed as calling upon "rocks and mountains to 
fall on them" to "hide them from the face of Him 
that sitteth upon the throne, and from the wrath 
of the Lamb." The entire constitution of physi- 
cal nature demonstrates plainly that God does not 
inflict punishment by a direct executive, but fixes 
the responsibility for all adverse consequences 
upon the responsible party, who, by the trans- 
gression of law, so relates himself to that which 
God ordained for his good as to pervert and con- 
vert it into his own ruin. 

Every man knows also that as a physical be- 



GOVERNMENT. 79 

ing he begins his existence with a handicap ; that 
is, the seeds of death are in his physical constitu- 
tion, and he is therefore tending to death. So 
that, physically, he is, from the very beginning of 
his existence, thrust upon a field of struggle and 
conflict against the depravity of physical nature, 
we may say ; and in this struggle is his only hope 
to exist at all. So he also enters upon his spiritual 
existence with a handicap upon him. He is in- 
clined to a life of sin. The seeds of spiritual death 
are in his spiritual nature; and this handicap at 
once precipitates a spiritual conflict which must 
be kept up as long as he lives in the flesh. He 
knows from a bitter struggle, not only with the 
world and Satan, but also with his own depraved 
and sinful nature, that he was "conceived in sin, 
and brought forth in iniquity." It should be 
stated, however, that it is out of this struggle that 
he develops a righteous character, which would 
have been impossible to him but for the circum- 
stances which led to the conflict. So that, after 
all, the wisdom of God in permitting the fall of 
man is vindicated, and the great Apostle Paul is 
justified in saying, "We also rejoice in our tribu- 
lations, knowing that tribulation worketh stead- 
fastness ; and steadfastness approvedness ; and ap- 
provedness hope." 

So we may confidently assert that the physi- 



80 THE GOSPEL IN NATURE. 

cal government of God is an exact demonstration 
of His spiritual government : in the reign of law ; 
as to the nature of the government ; the manner of 
its administration, and the nature and measure of 
its consequences. 



CHAPTER VII. 

INCARNATION, REGENERATION AND SANCTIFICATION. 

It is proposed to show that the method by 
which the Bible teaches that man's spiritual being 
is regenerated and sanctified, is demonstrated in 
physical nature by that method by which both 
vegetable and animal life on the earth are lifted 
to a higher plane. It is necessary here, however, 
to again call attention to a fact of universal ob- 
servation in the working of physical nature ; that 
is, that anything in the physical creation, left to 
itself, degenerates; and yet it would seem that 
everything in the physical creation has in it the 
possibility of regeneration, so to speak. It is 
contrary, however, to all observation, to our intui- 
tive ideas, and to sound philosophy, to suppose 
that anything in physical nature ever regenerated 
or lifted itself to a higher plane of being. As we 
observe the workings of physical nature, the power 
to regenerate and sanctify comes down from 
above, and never springs up from beneath. 

The theory of modern evolution, however, 



82 THE GOSPEL IN NATURE. 

starts this power from beneath, and avers that the 
cosmical universe is the result of the tendency of 
the lower to lift itself to the higher. Our conten- 
tion is that the plain observation of ordinary peo- 
ple disputes this unproved, if not unprovable, con- 
tention. As has been already shown, all our ob- 
servations of the workings of physical nature 
establish the antithesis of this contention. That 
nothing in physical nature lifts itself, is accord- 
ing to all observation. 

Children do not teach themselves; parents 
teach the children. Pupils do not teach them- 
selves ; the teacher instructs the pupils, and so on. 

No plant or tree was ever lifted to a higher 
plane by what evolutionists, whether materialistic 
or theistic, call "natural selection" and the "sur- 
vival of the fittest." All observation shows us 
that a bad tree is made a good tree, not by "nat- 
ural selection" and the "survival of the fittest," 
as regnant principles in physical nature, but by 
a selection by man, and by man's power to arrest 
the downward tendency in the life of the tree, by 
grafting, cultivating, pruning, etc. In fact, the 
whole process by which the Bible declares God re- 
generates and sanctifies the spiritual life of a hu- 
man being is demonstrated by a man's regenera- 
tion of the life of an apple tree. In the first place 
a man finds the incarnation, so to speak, of a 



INCARNATION. 83 

higher type of apple-tree life. Such an off -shoot, 
as we may say, in the course of apple-tree life, can 
be accounted for, it may be, only in the supposition 
that from the source of apple-tree life there came 
forth — was incarnated — a higher form, while the 
trend of the generality was in the opposite 
direction. Man, by the exercise of his intelli- 
gence, selects this higher type from all others. He 
takes a germ or a bud of this better life, and en- 
grafts it into the body of a lower form of apple- 
tree life. The lower form grows up into the 
higher, and the tree bears, not that fruit which 
was natural to the original tree, but the fruit of 
the nature of the graft; and, even then, if the 
man abandons the tree, and leaves it to itself, there 
will spring out of the tree what is called "suckers," 
or useless, fruitless growths, which will finally 
render the tree fruitless, or will so sap the higher 
life as to dwarf the fruit. If, however, the man 
persists in caring for the tree, cultivating, prun- 
ing and so on, always preventing any shades 
which may shut out the sun's light from the tree, 
the good apple-tree life sanctifies the tree, and 
it continues to bear good fruit as long as the 
tendencies to death in the tree can be held in 
check. 

Now it is upon this same principle that the 
Bible declares that the spiritual life of man is 



84 THE GOSPEL IN NATURE. 

regenerated and sanctified. God's Son, our 
Savior, became incarnate. He came down from 
Heaven to lift man to a higher plane of spiritual 
being. It was necessary for Him to take part in 
humanity, in order that His life might be en- 
grafted upon our life (it is impossible to make a 
peach bud grow in an apple stalk) ; and now, the 
Holy Spirit engrafts upon the human spirit a bud, 
or germ, of the divine life of Christ, and the old 
human life grows up into the life of the Son of 
God and loses itself, if not as to kind, as to na- 
ture, and bears the fruit of the Christ-life. This 
life is tended by the Holy Spirit: the "suckers" 
are pruned away, and the environment so watched 
over as that the rays of the Sun of Righteousness 
fall upon it. 

This, then, is God's method of regenerating 
life. He shows it to us. It does not do itself. 
The "survival of the fittest" and "natural selec- 
tion" are ruled out, and cannot be depended upon 
for the regeneration of the apple tree. The tree 
left to itself degenerates rather, but taken in hand 
by an intelligent person, its possibilities are real- 
ized. Just so God says in His Book — the Bible — 
that the Holy Spirit takes in hand the spiritual 
life of man; finds the incarnated, better, higher, 
human life, in the life of the Son of God on the 
earth, and engrafts a germ of the Christ-life upon 



INCARNATION. 85 

the spirit of man, and man's spiritual life grows 
up into Him. This is God's demonstration of re- 
generation. 

Animal life is regenerated in the same way. 
There is the incarnation of a higher form 
of cattle life, for instance. By the intelligent se- 
lection of man, a person, one above the cattle, 
that higher specimen is preserved, and the others 
killed off by man. Then this higher form 
of cattle-life is brought into contact with lower 
forms of cattle-life, and the process is repeated 
until a whole herd is regenerated, so to speak. 
Here is God's demonstration of the way, or the 
method, by which He regenerates life. The cat- 
tle left to themselves will degenerate. There is 
no law of the "survival of the fittest," or principle 
of "natural selection," which ever accomplished 
the regeneration of a herd of cattle. It is always 
accomplished by the interposition of a higher 
being. 

Just so, man, left to himself, degenerates. 
Where God intervenes, and the intellectual and 
spiritual life of Jesus are put into the life of man, 
into human society, by the Holy Spirit, man is 
lifted, along with all his institutions, to a higher 
plane of being. This is as true historically, as to 
the course of the existence of the human race, as 
it is in theory. Wherever the blessed life of Jesus 



86 THE GOSPEL IN NATURE. 

has touched the poluted stream of human life, it 
has been clarified and sweetened. Wherever the 
"Tree of Life" has been planted, it has fertilized 
the trees of human lives, and made them to blos- 
som in the beauty of Heaven. The blessed life of 
Jesus is involved into the human spirit, and then 
the blessed fruits of that life are evolved. "Out 
of nothing, nothing comes." There must be first 
involution, and then evolution. God comes into 
humanity and lifts humanity up to God. All this 
is in keeping with our observation of nature's 
workings everywhere. The good of the earth 
comes down through man, and the good of man 
comes down from God. "I will lift up my eyes 
to the hills whence cometh my help." The good 
of the human body comes down through the mind, 
which is above it, and the good of the mind comes 
down through the spirit, which is above it. The 
good of the student comes down through the teach- 
er, and so on. False philosophy starts good from 
beneath. True philosophy starts good from 
above. "Ye must be born (regenerated) from 
above," is God's imperative command, proclaimed 
in all physical nature as well as in the Bible. 

It is perfectly plain that the contention of 
modern evolutionists is the very opposite of these 
plain observations. Evolution starts good from 
beneath. The theory demands that the stream 



INCARNATION. 87 

shall run up hill; that sequence must be greater 
than cause, else physical nature, left to her own 
workings, could not rise. This is but another way 
of saying that effect is greater than cause, which, 
it seems to me, is perfectly absurd. Much as has 
been said and written concerning evolution, I make 
bold to declare that there is really no such thing. 
There is development, there is growth, but there 
is no evolution. Evolution as defined by modern 
evolutionists is nothing if the laws or principles of 
"natural selection" and the "survival of the fit- 
test," are not regnant laws, or principles, in physi- 
cal nature. They are not, and the man of ordi- 
nary attainments, and medium mother- wit, knows 
they are not. So the whole theory is built upon 
falsehood, and consequently the adoption of it has 
corrupted the writing of human history, the data 
of physical science, and much of the moral and re- 
ligious teaching of our time. In his review of Mr. 
Charles Darwin's work, "Origin of Species," Mr. 
Thomas H. Huxley says : 

"Is it satisfactorily proven in fact that species 
may be originated by selection ? that there is such 
a thing as natural selection ? that none of the phe- 
nomena exhibited by species are inconsistent with 
the origin of species in this way? If these ques- 
tions can be answered in the affirmative, Mr. Dar- 
win's view steps out of the ranks of hypotheses 



88 THE GOSPEL IN NATURE. 

into those of proved theories; but so long as the 
evidence at present produced falls short of enforc- 
ing that affirmation, so long, to our minds, must 
the new doctrine be content to remain among the 
former, * * * still a hypothesis and not yet the 
theory of species." Mr. Huxley continues, "After 
much consideration, and with assuredly no bias 
against Mr. Darwin's views, it is our clear convic- 
tion that as the evidence stands, it is not abso- 
lutely proven that a group of animals, having all 
the characteristics exhibited by species in nature, 
has ever been originated by selection; whether 
artificial or natural; * * * there is no positive 
evidence at present that any group of animals has 
by variation and selective breeding given rise to 
another group which was even in the least degree 
infertile with the first." "Mr. Darwin," says 
Mr. Huxley, "is perfectly aware of this point, and 
brings forward a multitude of ingenious argu- 
ments to diminish the force of the objection; 
* * * still this little rift within the lute is not to 
be disguised or overlooked" (Lay Sermons, p. 
295). Again, speaking of persistent types of 
life (Lay Sermons, p. 225), Mr. Huxley says: 

"What, then, does an impartial survey of the 
positively ascertained truths of Palaentology testi- 
fy in relation to the common doctrine of progres- 
sive modification, which suppose that modification 



INCARNATION. 89 

to have taken place by a necessary progress from 
more or less embryonic forms, or from more or 
less generalized types, within the limits of the 
period represented by the f ossilif orous rocks ? It 
negates those doctrines, for it either shows us no 
evidence of any such modification, or it demon- 
strates it to have been very slight; and as to the 
nature of that modification, it yields no evidence 
whatsoever that the earlier members of any long 
continued group were more generalized in struc- 
ture than the later ones." 

Thus it may be seen that even Mr. Huxley 
saw nothing whatsoever in the very contentions 
of Mr. Darwin which largely formed the founda- 
tions of his theory. All scientists of note have 
today discarded Mr. Darwin's theories alto- 
gether, and yet, strange to say, a few Christian 
teachers are trying to explain away both the teach- 
ings of sound philosophy and of the Scriptures, 
so as to make room for an ancient heathen system 
which was attempted to be revived by Mr. Darwin. 
The obsolete contention lies at the foundation of a 
wide perversion of the Bible teaching as to re- 
generation, the necessity for regeneration, and the 
method by which it is accomplished. No man can 
hold to the philosophy which underlies the whole 
theory of modern evolution and at the same time 
accept the teaching of the Bible, as to the fall of 



90 THE GOSPEL IN NATURE. 

man, the results of sin, the necessity for, or the 
method of, regeneration and sanctification of the 
spiritual life of man. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

SUBTITUTION. 

It is proposed to show that substitution in 
physical nature, and in man's physical existence, 
holds the same dominant place which is assigned 
to it by the Bible, in spiritual matters. 

Everything in physical nature seems to exist 
for something else. A principle of reciprocity 
runs through the physical creation. A proper 
question concerning every physical thing would 
be: "What is that for?" The answer to that 
question is at once an explanation of the existence 
of the thing. So we may say that the value of 
things is in relations. One thing is related to an- 
other in a helpful way, and it is interesting to 
study the things in physical nature which seem to 
exist solely to the end that something else may 
exist. The great purpose, it would seem, in the 
existence of all mineral substances is for vegeta- 
tion; that all vegetation exists for the animal, 
while it clearly appears that all physical things 



92 THE GOSPEL IN NATURE. 

upon our planet exist for man. The soil gives up 
its substance to vegetation, while the vegetation 
gives up its substance to the animal, and all yield 
themselves up to man. 

Every form of life upon the earth is built up 
and sustained by a dying substitute. Take, for 
instance, the physical life of man — how is that 
life sustained? Why, plainly, by a dying sub- 
stitute. The animals and vegetables that I eat 
to sustain my physical life surely die that I may 
live. If they did not die I could not live. There 
is in my physical constitution the constant 
tendency, I may say, to death. The seeds of 
dissolution have been planted in my physical con- 
stitution. How am I saved from reaping the har- 
vest at once ? Why, plainly, by a dying substitute. 
The animals and vegetables die that I may live. 
This is the Creator's plan for saving me from the 
doom of physical death. Here God demonstrates 
to me the Bible plan for saving my spiritual life 
from spiritual death. Christ dies for me. He 
takes my place, and because He dies I live. The 
physical death of Jesus upon the cross was only 
the outward, tangible expression, the demonstra- 
tion, of that spiritual suffering of the Savior by 
which atonement was made for my sin, both hered- 
itary and personal. Then, life from death is what 
every observing person is compelled, by his obser- 



SUBSTITUTION. 93 

vation of physical nature, to admit is the plan of 
the Creator of the physical universe. 

But this is not all. We may say that all good 
to physical creatures comes by the way of substitu- 
tional intervention and sacrifice. This is the very 
essence of the gospel, and it is, as well, the very 
essence of the teaching of all the physical creation. 
All physical life is supported by physical death, we 
may say, and all physical good comes through sac- 
rifice. Take the physical good of man, for in- 
stance; his physical life is not only supported by 
the death of a physical substitute, but all physical 
good comes to him by this same method of substi- 
tution, or intervention. His clothing becomes a 
substitute for him. His great coat is between him 
and the winter's blast. The walls and roof of his 
house are between him and the beating rain and 
driving snowstorm. He sits in comfort and is 
protected from the heat of the scorching summer's 
sun, under the shade of a tree. All his physical 
comforts, we may say, come to him through an in- 
tervention. God does not suspend or violate the 
laws of physical nature in order to bring comfort 
and physical ease to man, but He provides an in- 
tervention — a substitute. In rapid transit man 
rides the horse, the steam car, the motor car, the 
steamship, the airship, and so on. Thus at every 
turn of man's physical existence the Creator is 



94 THE GOSPEL IN NATURE. 

demonstrating to him the method by which his 
blessings and comforts come. Not by suspension, 
but by intervention. 

The great Apostle Paul declared that the 
Cross was the mountain peak of his glorying. 
What did he mean ? He meant that he gloried in 
this great doctrine of substitution, and that which 
was implied in the doctrine as exemplified in the 
substitutional death of the Son of God. 

After all, we may say that, in a way, every 
man's innate sense of what constitutes the highest 
virtues of the race, compels him to admire the 
Apostle's ideal. What is it, for instance, in the 
devotion of the mother to her children that chal- 
lenges the admiration of all mankind, but the dis- 
position to sacrifice herself for her children? 
What is it that constitutes the very essence of 
patriotism but the disposition of a great citizen 
to lay himself upon the altar of sacrifice for the 
honor of his country, and the good of his fellow 
citizens? The man who voluntarily suffers to 
save another from suffering is the world's hero. 
This is especially true if the voluntary sufferer 
happens to be one of much higher rank than those 
for whom he suffers. The virtue of his suffer- 
ing is further heightened, in the estimation of 
men, if the sufferer clearly has in mind, as his 
only incentive, the good of those for whom he suf- 



SUBSTITUTION. 95 

fers. And, we may say that when the great, the 
good and the mighty voluntarily suffers for his 
enemies, who are vile and sinful, and who have no 
claim upon him whatever — the virtue of such a 
noble, unselfish act lifts the sufferer, in the esti- 
mation of men, almost to the plane of divinity. 

"This was compassion like a God, 

That when the Savior knew 
The price of pardon was His blood, 

His pity ne'er withdrew." 

Then, too, if such suffering reaches the ut- 
most limit of self-abasement, and self-abnegation 
the world gazes upon the scene as a tragedy of 
matchless compassion and love. So men must 
clearly perceive that, if the tragedy of Golgotha's 
cross were accounted as only a creation of fiction, 
still, altogether considered, it contains the highest 
appeal of which men have ever known, to the 
highest admiration and the deepest emotion 
known to the race. 

Objection has sometimes been made to the 
Bible plan of salvation through the suffering of 
Jesus, on the ground that it involved an injustice, 
in that the innocent was made to suffer for the 
guilty. Even so, it was the innocent suffering 
instead of the guilty, but therein is the power of 



96 THE GOSPEL IN NATURE. 

the gospel to save from sin. I suppose that no 
one will deny that we all witness the innocent suf- 
fering on account of the conduct of the profligate 
and sinful, here in this life. It is on every hand. 
It is this fact concerning the nature and conse- 
quences of wrong-doing, and this only, that ever 
effectually and properly turns men from their 
wrong-doing, and disgusts them with all sin. The 
fact that one's course of sinful conduct does in- 
volve the innocent in suffering, constitutes the 
turpitude of sin in every man's estimation. So 
that the suffering of the innocent which wrong- 
doing causes is, in the estimation of all men, the 
sin of sin. So we may say that the purpose of all 
human government is not so much to punish the 
wrong-doer, as to protect the innocent from the 
direful consequences of the wrong-doing of the 
lawless and wicked. 

Again, while at first blush it would seem that 
an arrangement by which the innocent suffer the 
consequences of the doings of the guilty would 
involve an injustice, upon further consideration 
it clearly appears that such an arrangement is, 
in the very nature of the case, the only one that 
would ever disgust men with, and turn them from, 
wrong-doing. Indeed it is the essence of wrong- 
doing — that which makes it wrong — that it in- 
volves the innocent in suffering. The sin of in- 



SUBSTITUTION. 97 

temperance, for instance, is considered outrageous 
for the reason that the innocent suffering which 
it causes is so patent. It breaks the hearts of 
innocent mothers and wives, and reduces defense- 
less childhood to ragged poverty, pinching hun- 
ger, and dooms it to life-long illiteracy. 

So God demonstrates at every turn in our 
earthly existence His own wisdom in proposing 
the salvation of men from the love and practice of 
sin, by the picture in Calvary's cross, where the 
consummate expression of all innocence is put to 
the most shameful, awful, tragic death, by the ag- 
gregate guilt of a lost world. No wonder the cross 
is declared to be the "power of God and the wis- 
dom of God." Men ought to know, they do know, 
that this is the only method by which men are ever 
led to hate sin and turn from it. It should be said 
that if it seem unethical to compel the innocent 
to suffer for the sins of the guilty, it would seem 
equally unethical to deny the innocent the privi- 
lege of suffering on account of the guilty, and to 
save the guilty from the dominion, as well as the 
doom of sin, provided the innocent choose to do so. 

Again, there is in the very nature of the case 
no other way, except by the voluntary interposi- 
tion of the innocent on behalf of the guilty, to de- 
velop the highest character known to the race. 
There might be some selfish motive prompting one 



98 THE GOSPEL IN NATURE. 

to suffer for the good, but voluntarily to suffer for 
one's enemies, who are bad, displays attributes of 
benevolence and mercy which are not seen else- 
where. "God commendeth His own love toward 
us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died 
for us" (Romans 5:8). The human race knows 
no love except divine love, which surpasses that 
of a mother for her child ; and one of the strong- 
est tests of that love is in the fact that it leads the 
mother to cling to the child in disgrace and shame, 
when others forsake him — 

"Go for my wandering boy tonight, 
Go search for him where you will ; 
But bring him to me with all his blight, 
And tell him I love him still." 

So, in all the existence of the human race on 
earth, the great doctrine of substitution occupies 
the same central position in the physical, political 
and social life of man, that it occupies in the teach- 
ing of the Scriptures as to the method by which he 
enjoys all spiritual good. The Cross is no more 
the central force in the gospel, and in man's spir- 
itual salvation, than it is in the physical creation 
and in man's physical salvation. The one is the 
perfect demonstration of the other. 



CHAPTER IX. 

RESURRECTION AND IMMORTALITY. 

It is proposed to show that the physical cre- 
ation plainly demonstrates the resurrection of the 
dead, and clearly indicates that the death of the 
human body does not change one's personality, nor 
end his existence as a living being. 

We may say that, in a way, every form of 
physical life upon the earth is a resurrection from 
the dead. The principles of life and death work 
side by side throughout the physical creation, and 
everywhere all forms of life come through death. 
The soil itself is dead matter. No living body sup- 
plies directly from itself the forces which produce 
growth in other living bodies. They promote the 
growth of other bodies when they themselves die. 
So that, we may say, it is a principle in physical 
nature that all forms of life upon the earth rise 
from the dead. All seeds, in physical nature, 
must lose their own bodies to reproduce them- 
selves. If it be objected that this is not a demon- 
stration of a real resurrection, on account of the 



100 THE GOSPEL IN NATURE. 

fact that the germ of the life of the seed does not 
die, the answer is, neither does the Bible teach 
that the spirit of man dies with his body. The 
body of the seed dies, not its life germ. And this 
is an exact demonstration of the teaching of the 
Scriptures concerning the resurrection of the dead. 
It demonstrates perfectly the fact that the perpe- 
tuity of a life does not depend upon the perpetuity 
of the body it may inhabit today. The same life 
may inhabit another body — may live in another 
house, and that house arises out of the ruins of 
the former one. The very leaves of the trees 
which decay at the root of the tree arise from the 
dead in other leaves, it may be of the same tree; 
and the grain of corn that dies in the ground, 
dying, furnishes the very nutriment which starts 
the stalk that bears the larger — the multiplied life. 
The principle of sacrifice, alluded to in a for- 
mer chapter, should be mentioned in this connec- 
tion. It runs through all the physical existence; 
and in the whole physical arrangement, as a rule, 
all good to the living arises from the dying of its 
kind. Living human beings are blessed mainly 
through the sacrifice of their own good, on the 
part of their fellow human beings. So that we 
may say that life from death is a law which occu- 
pies the largest place in all physical existence. The 
whole cycle of the existence of vegetable and ani- 



RESURRECTION. 101 

mal forms of life upon the earth, is a ceaseless 
round of death and resurrection. We understand 
that the human body is undergoing constant 
change, and that within a short space of time, 
comparatively, the entire physical man perishes, 
and is renewed. So that those of us who have 
lived many years, have passed out of one physi- 
cal house and entered into a new one, over and 
over; and yet we have survived the change and 
lost nothing of our personal identity. What is 
tnis arrangement for? Why, clearly, to demon- 
strate to men that they are immortal, even though 
they live, for the time being, in mortal bodies; 
that they survive the wreck and dissolution 
of their physical bodies, and that their spirits may 
live first in one house and then in another. 

Physical death is, so far as we know, only 
the sudden dissolution of the physical part of 
man. That is as much as any of us know about 
it; and we all know that the dissolution of our 
bodies does not terminate our existence. So God 
in nature demonstrates the immortality of the 
soul, notwithstanding the mortality of the body. 
Those who claim that the final dissolution of the 
body terminates the existence of the soul or spirit, 
are under the necessity of showing that there is 
something in the sudden dissolution of the body 
that proves a disaster to the spiritual part of man, 



102 THE GOSPEL IN NATURE. 

which does not produce such disastrous results in 
its gradual dissolution. But who can say this? 
How can this be proven ? Those of us who believe 
in the immortality of the soul can broadly affirm, 
and prove to a demonstration, that the spiritual 
lite of man survives the dissolution of his body; 
the only difference being that in one instance the 
body undergoes a gradual death and decomposi- 
tion, while in the other the dissolution is more sud- 
den, but perhaps not more complete. 

Bishop Butler ("Analogy of Religion") 
clearly shows how that the physical body is not the 
real man ; how that a man uses his physical body 
as he uses other and foreign matter ; how he uses 
the eye-glass, which is foreign to his physical body, 
for the precise purpose for which he uses his eye ; 
and he argues that, therefore, the eye is no more 
an essential part of the man than is the eye-glass. 
The argument seems to be well founded. We see 
how constantly man takes up foreign matter and, 
so to speak, adds to, lengthens out, the power of 
his every physical sense. He hears a voice one 
hundred miles away, by the use of the telephone 
and beholds the distant planets by the use of the 
telescope. He accelerates his locomotion to sixty 
miles an hour, and adds by an airship to his limit 
of a six-foot bound from terra f irma, the distance 
of more than one mile toward the ethereal region. 



RESURRECTION. 103 

So he uses foreign matter for the same purposes 
for which he uses his physical organs, showing 
plainly that his spirit overleaps the boundaries set 
for him by his physical body. 

Again, our entire existence upon earth is so 
arranged that one is compelled to act in the pres- 
ent with reference to the future. The different 
periods of one's earthly life demonstrate to all 
men the importance of using the present as a prep- 
aration for the future. Childhood looks forward 
to strong manhood and middle-age, while middle- 
age looks forward to decrepitude. Each stage is 
a preparation for the one to follow, and he who 
fails to prepare himself in one period, for his ex- 
istence in the succeeding one, dooms himself to 
disaster and defeat. So, at every turn in this life, 
the Creator demonstrates to man the relation of 
the present to the future, that the rewards and 
punishments for present devotion to, or neglect of, 
duty await him in coming days; thus constantly 
holding before men the fact that this life has 
reference to a future one, in which the harvest of 
present sowing, whether good or bad, will be gar- 
nered. 

There is also in every man, whether in heath- 
en or Christian lands, certain intuitive ideas, we 
may say, of a future existence and accountability. 
So that the race, in one way and another, has ever 



104 THE GOSPEL IN NATURE. 

been looking forward to a curse or a blessing 
awaiting us in a future age. The hope of "the 
golden age" has anchored the souls of men through 
the ages. They cling to their dead. Their devo- 
tion to the dead bodies of their loved ones has led 
to the most stupendous undertakings and sacri- 
fices to preserve and commemorate them. 

The Creator of the physical world has antici- 
pated, not only the dire necessities of the physical 
existence of men, but filled the cup of human lux- 
ury brim full. Is it reasonable to suppose that the 
same God would implant within the universal 
human breast that innate clinging to the 
dead, which characterizes us all, without mak- 
ing any provision whatever for that longing 
of the soul which transcends that for any 
earthly thing ? No ; every demonstration of the 
goodness of the Maker, in anticipating the 
slightest physical necessities of all His crea- 
tures, including not only man, but even the "birds 
of the air" and the "lilies of the field," plainly 
indicates that somewhere, sometime, we shall 
find "the broken link" supplied — the other half 
of the hinge. If one turns to the glorious hope 
of the resurrection of the dead, immortality 
and a "home in heaven" where "there is death no 
more," "nor any more pain," "nor sorrow nor 
crying"; where there is "night no more," nor 



RESURRECTION. 105 

"curse," and so on, the broken link is supplied; 
the hinges are matched, and the soul mounts up to 
sing forever. It seems to me that instead of par- 
leying over these plainly demonstrated, sacred, 
and blessed truths, which alone bend a bow of 
promise over the whole future, men should con- 
stantly praise the Maker for the ample illustra- 
tion and demonstration which He has placed be- 
fore the eyes of men of ordinary attainments, re- 
vealing plainly the verity of these things, and the 
sure foundation of that hope which serves as an 
anchor to the soul amid the storms of disaster and 
sorrow which at times well-nigh overwhelm us. I 
here quote the words of Massillon, the great 
French orator and preacher. On immortality, he 
says: 

"If we wholly perish with the body, what an 
imposture is this whole system of laws, manners, 
and usages, on which human society is founded! 
If we wholly perish with the body, these maxims 
of charity, patience, justice, honor, gratitude and 
friendship, which sages have taught and good men 
have practiced, what are they but empty words, 
possessing no real and binding efficacy? Why 
should we heed them, if in this life only we have 
hope? Speak not of duty. What can we owe to 
the dead, to the living, to ourselves, if all are, or 
will be, nothing? Who shall dictate our duty, if 
not our own pleasures — if not our own passions? 
Speak not of morality. It is a mere chimera, a 



106 THE GOSPEL IN NATURE. 

bugbear of human invention, if retribution termi- 
nate with the grave. 

"If we must wholly perish, what to us are the 
sweet ties of kindred? What the tender names 
of parent, child, sister, brother, husband, wife or 
friend ? The characters of a drama are not more 
illusive. We have no ancestors, no descendants; 
since succession cannot be predicated of nothing- 
ness. Would we honor the illustrious dead ? How 
absurd to honor that which has no existence! 
Would we take thought for posterity? How fri- 
volous to concern ourselves for those whose end, 
like our own, must soon be annihilation! Have 
we made a promise? How can it bind nothing to 
nothing? Perjury is but a jest. The last injunc- 
tions of the dying — what sanctity have they, more 
than the last sound of a chord that is snapped, of 
an instrument that is broken ? 

"To sum up all : If we must wholly perish, 
then is obedience to the laws but an insensate serv- 
itude; rulers and magistrates are but the phan- 
toms which popular imbecility has raised up; jus- 
tice is an unwarrantable infringement upon the 
liberty of men — an imposition, a usurpation; the 
law of marriage is a vain scruple; modesty, a 
prejudice ; honor and probity, such stuff as dreams 
are made of ; and incests, murders, parricides, the 
most heartless cruelties and the blackest crimes, 
are but the legitimate sports of man's irresponsi- 
bile nature; while the harsh epithets attached to 
them are merely such as the policy of legislators 
has invented, and imposed on the credulity of the 
people. 



RESURRECTION. 107 

"Here is the issue to which the vaunted philos- 
ophy of unbelievers must inevitably lead. Here is 
that social f elicity, that sway of reason, that eman- 
cipation from error, of which they eternally prate, 
as the fruit of their doctrines. Accept their max- 
ims, and the whole world falls back into a frightful 
chaos ; and all the relations of life are confounded ; 
and all ideas of vice and virtue are reversed ; and 
the most inviolable laws of society vanish ; and all 
moral discipline perishes ; and the government of 
states and nations has no longer any cement to up- 
hold ; and all the harmony of the body politic be- 
comes discord; and the human race is no more 
than an assemblage of reckless barbarians, shame- 
less, remorseless, brutal, denaturalized, with no 
other law than force, no other check than passion, 
no other bond than irreligion, no other God than 
self! Such would be the world which impiety 
would make. Such would be this world were a 
belief in God and immortality to die out of the 
human heart." 



CHAPTER X. 

THE PLAN OF SALVATION. 

In the light of what has gone before, in the 
preparation of the different chapters for this vol- 
ume, I desire here to call attention to the plan of 
the salvation of the soul which is set before us 
in the sacred Scriptures, and to trace the dem- 
onstrations of that plan, which are made for us in 
physical nature and in the course of man's earth- 
ly existence. 

The Bible starts with man created in the 
"image of God." In what did this image consist? 
Certainly not in the full and complete "image of 
God," else man would not have fallen into sin. 
This image, we may say, consisted in the kind of 
being. That is, man is of the same species. He is 
like God — a person. He is like God, in that he is a 
free being, however in a circumscribed sphere. 
He is like God in that he possesses reasoning 
powers: he can foreordain and predestinate. He 
is like God in that the attributes of his being, so 
far as he possesses attributes, are, in kind, like 



110 THE GOSPEL IN NATURE. 

those possessed by the Almighty. Thus, we may 
say, man belongs to the family of God in the na- 
ture and kind of his being. 

The purpose of man's creation was to make 
him not only a son of God in the kind of being, 
but also to complete his sonship by the imparta- 
tion of the divine nature, in its completeness. In 
pursuance of this purpose, the Creator endowed 
man, at the very beginning, with a liberty, 
or freedom, which capacitated him to choose 
a course of conduct which would not only trans- 
gress the will and law of his Maker, but which 
would at the same time redound to his own 
ruin. It should be understood that, if man had 
not been created thus, a free being, like God in 
this respect, he would not have been the kind of 
being ever to become a real son of God. We are 
taught in the Bible that, when put to the test, man 
sinned and brought upon himself the curse and 
blight of a sinful nature; that his sin involved 
him in moral ruin, from which he was unable to 
save himself. This, we may say, was all contem- 
plated in the Maker's plan for man. By his sin, 
man, in the exercise of his God-like power of 
choice, involves himself in suffering of the most 
awful nature. He reaches the "end of his tether," 
as we say. Out of the depths to which he sinks 
himself by sin, he cries to God. Now this volun- 



PLAN OF SALVATION. Ill 

tary appeal to the Almighty for help gives the 
Maker the opportunity, without violating man's 
free nature, to impart to him still further His own 
life and character. The Prodigal Son would, per- 
haps, never have returned to his father's house if 
he had not been pinched by want and hunger. 

Sin is the great destroyer of the lives and 
happiness of men. The Bible declares that the 
greatest need of the world is salvation from sin, 
and everyone knows this is true. Everyone 
knows that a large per cent of the poverty and suf- 
fering of the race is due to wrong-doing. Every- 
one knows also that men can never be turned from 
sin as long as they love sin better than righetous- 
ness. The one great question, then, is : How can 
men be led to hate sin and love righteousness? 
The Bible declares that the crucifixion of Jesus is 
the answer to this question — the solution of this 
problem. Now the great lessons of the cross are 
these : 

1. The inflexibility of justice in the govern- 
ment of God. 

2. The nature of sin, in that it nails the in- 
nocent to the tree of suffering. 

3. The power and attractiveness of the love 
which leads the infinite and innocent Son of God 
to voluntarily endure infinite debasement, sorrow 
and suffering, for a race of finite, guilty sinners. 



112 THE GOSPEL IN NATURE. 

Now whether men believe in the deity of 
Jesus Christ or not ; whether they believe that the 
crucifixion of Jesus was really God's plan for sav- 
ing men from sin, they certainly know that, even 
if the story of the crucifixion be a mere fictitious 
one, there is involved in it every fact, or principle, 
that ever did or ever can turn a man from a life 
of wrong-doing. Some men are deterred from 
wrong-doing by the thought of the inflexibility of 
justice and the law, and the fear of punishment. 
In human government this fact is recognized, and 
so penalties are annexed to certain crimes, with 
the understanding that the prospect of being 
forced by the law to pay the penalty will be cal- 
culated to deter men from wrong-doing. But 
everyone recognizes that the motive thus prompt- 
ing to the observance of the laws of the land, is 
not at all the ideal motive which should prompt 
men in right-doing. The motive to righteous 
living should be a real hatred of sin and a real 
love of righteousness. How then are men led to 
hate sin? There is just one aspect of sin, which, 
in the very nature of the case, ever did, or ever 
will, disgust men with sin. It is the suffering to 
which sin subjects the innocent. If only the guilty 
were made to suffer by wrong-doing, then men 
could never be led to hate it, and turn from it. 
Men hold that the guilty ought to suffer, while all 



PLAN OF SALVATION. 113 

agree that the crime of a crime, if I may so speak, 
is measured by the suffering of the innocent 
which it causes. This is the universal plea which 
men make against this or that course of conduct ; 
this or that measure proposed; that is, that it 
involves the innocent in suffering. And, I may 
say that the universal human conscience pro- 
nounces condemnation upon any course of con- 
duct, or any measure proposed, which involves the 
innocent in suffering. Now in the light of this 
fact, which is conceded by all, we should consider 
God's plan for producing hatred for sin in the 
human heart. 

Jesus Christ is set before us as the consum- 
mate expression of innocence — the infinitely holy, 
merciful, loving Son of God. The aggregate guilt 
of a sinful race sends Him to Gethsemane and the 
cross. Now all will have to admit that whether 
the story of Jesus be fiction or fact, there is ex- 
pressed in it the one picture of sin which ever did, 
or ever will, disgust a man with sin. The one re- 
flection which plunges a man into mental and 
spiritual perdition, is, "I have, by my own wilful, 
unprovoked act, murdered the innocent." One 
deprecates his course of conduct which has 
brought shame, disgrace and sorrow upon his in- 
nocent family. What, pray, would ever lead a 
man to deprecate his sin against God, except the 



114 THE GOSPEL IN NATURE. 

realization that his sin nailed Jesus, the pure One, 
the just One, the merciful One — his best friend — 
to Golgotha's cruel cross? Why do not men see 
in this appeal of infinite love to lead men to hate 
and turn from sin, the infinite wisdom of God? 

"In evil long I took delight, 

Unawed by shame or fear ; 
Till a new object struck my sight, 
And stopped my wild career. 

"I saw one hanging on a tree 

In agonies and blood ; 
He fixed his languid eyes on me, 

As near his cross I stood. 

"Oh, never till my latest breath, 

Shall I forget that look ; 
It seemed to charge me with his death, 

Tho' not a word He spoke. 

"My conscience felt and owned the guilt; 

It plunged me in despair : 
I saw my sins his blood had spilt, 

And helped to nail Him there. 

"A second look he gave, which said : 

I freely all forgive ; 
This blood is for thy ransom paid — 

I die that thou mayest live. 

"Thus, while his death my sin displays 

In all its darkest hue, 
Such is the mystery of grace — 

It seals my pardon too." 

— Newton. 



PLAN OF SALVATION. 115 

We may say also that all men know that, to 
turn men from a life of sin — to lead them to hate 
sin — is not all that is necessary to save men from 
wrong-doing. There must be also an appeal to 
the heart to lead men to love God — a holy, right- 
eous God. 

Now, in the light of what we observe in the 
lives of men here, what is it that appeals to the 
deepest gratitude and love of the human spirit? 
Is it not the very principle which is so consum- 
mately set forth in the crucifixion of Jesus ? Even 
if He be only a character in fiction, He is yet set 
before us as the infinite Son of God. He stoops 
from Heaven's riches, honor and glory, to earth's 
abject poverty, humiliation, suffering and shame, 
for wicked lost men, who themselves nailed Him 
to the cross. "He who knew no sin was made sin 
for us, that we might be made the reighteousness 
of God in Him." "Though He was rich, yet for 
your sakes He became poor, that ye through His 
poverty might become rich." "He humbled Him- 
self, becoming obedient unto death, yea, the death 
of the cross." "While we were yet weak, in due 
season Christ died for the ungodly." "He is de- 
spised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows and 
acquainted with grief." "Upon Him was laid the 
iniquity of us all." "He was bruised for our 
iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon 



116 THE GOSPEL IN NATURE. 

Him, and with His stripes we are healed." What 
an appeal to the human heart ! Who can resist it? 
Again : What other plan of salvation from a 
life of wrong-doing could possibly be proposed, 
except that proposed in the Bible? Necessarily, 
conviction for sin must precede repentance for sin. 
No man is going to turn from a life of sin until 
he realizes the turpitude of the guilt of sin, and 
the ruin which follows upon a life of sin. Then 
what, pray, is the only next step? Why, repent- 
ance and conversion ; that is, changing one's mind 
as to the nature of sin, and then turning from it. 
Everyone knows that this, in the very nature of 
the case, is the way, and the only way, in which 
men are saved from the love and practice of sin. 
Furthermore, everyone knows that this would 
have been true if there had been no Bible, and no 
Christ. One voluntarily turns from sin against 
his fellow man when he realizes that his sins in- 
volve the innocent in suffering. Why should we 
expect men to turn from sin against God in any 
other way? 



CHAPTER XI. 

MODERN EVOLUTION — A HURTFUL FALLACY. 

Having at different points in this discussion 
adverted to the hypotheses of modern evolution, I 
wish here to set in order before my readers, some 
things concerning this theory. 

To begin with, it is very difficult to define 
the theory. Someone has said that it is itself in 
the process of evolution. Perhaps the best con- 
ception of its meaning may be had by comparing it 
with the words "growth" and "development." 
Growth means development from a seed, germ or 
root, to full size or maturity. Evolution, as de- 
fined by its devotees, includes something more 
than mere growth, and is itself regarded as a 
cause. Evolution is invested with a power to 
bring out of a seed, or root, that which did not 
exist in it, or in its ancestry. It is therefore re- 
garded as an origin or first cause of that which 
had no previous existence. As held by Mr. Dar- 
win, for instance, it lies at the foundation, and is 
the origin of species. In brief, Mr. Darwin held 



118 THE GOSPEL IN NATURE. 

and taught that through "natural selection" and 
the "survival of the fittest," evolution has brought 
into existence all forms of life now existing upon 
the earth, from an original germ. The theory is 
that by spontaneous generation, or by an act of 
creation, there was brought into existence a tiny 
cell, which, taken into custody by this magic power 
of evolution, is developed into thousands of beauti- 
ful forms, each perfectly adapted to all of its en- 
vironment. So that the old words "growth" and 
"development" are discarded by Mr. Darwin and 
others for this new, catchy word, "evolution." 
And this for the reason that it is impossible to 
invest these words with the idea of original cause. 
Modern evolution is nothing more than 
growth, or development, except as it is claimed 
to be, in some way, an original cause. I do not 
use the term "original cause" without reflection. 
I mean to say that modern evolution, as held by 
most of its advocates, is nothing except as it is 
claimed to constitute an original cause of all vari- 
ations and forms of life, and for that matter, the 
origin of the present form of the earth, and of all 
the other planets. The doctrine is applied to, and 
made the cause of, the building of the planets, the 
formation of the earth, the origin of life, and the 
origin of species. In brief, the theory of the ma- 
terialistic evolutionist is, that from a conglomer- 



MODERN EVOLUTION. 119 

ated mass of nothing, or of matter bearing no par- 
ticular marks of the design of an intelligent Cre- 
ator, evolution has produced order, the whole 
planetary system, the earth with all that therein 
is, by a sort of ascending scale expressed in the 
absurd, catchy expressions, "spontaneous genera- 
tion," "natural selection," and the "survival of 
the fittest." It is this investment of a theory, 
which is, admittedly, an unproved hypothesis, 
with the attributes and powers of a personal, om- 
nipotent, omniscient God, which constitutes it the 
most colossal absurdity that was ever proposed for 
the acceptance of the thinking men of the world. 

We find that something like the theory has 
existed for a long time. About the year 535 B. C. 
there were certain Asiatic philosophers who 
taught the theory with great success. We are 
told that they were diveded into two classes : those 
who taught the theory of the development of spirit 
into matter, and those who, like our modern mate- 
rialistic evolutionists, held to the theory of the 
development of matter into spirit. It was ex- 
pounded about the same time by certain Chinese 
teachers. 

The most complete system is given by one of 
the commentators of Confucius, Chu Hi, by name. 
His system was very much the same as that held 
by evolutionists in both Germany and this country. 



120 THE GOSPEL IN NATURE. 

He bases his theory upon the eternity of matter 
and its power in action. He says: "Under the 
whole heaven there is no primary matter without 
the immaterial principle, and no immaterial prin- 
ciple apart from primary matter. Subsequent to 
the immaterial principle is produced primary mat- 
ter, which is deducible from the axiom, that the 
one male and the one female principle of nature 
may be denominated *tau' (or logos, the active 
principle from which all things emanate) ; thus 
nature is spontaneously possessed by benevolence 
and righteousness (which are included in the idea 
of 'Tau') ." These Chinese teachers discarded the 
absurd theory of spontaneous generation, and also 
reckoned that there was a downward, as well as an 
upward, tendency. They believed that men were 
brothers to all other animals, and that in time men 
might degenerate into other animals, and that 
other animals might become men. They placed 
their dead dogs and cats near their sacred tem- 
ples, in order that the overflowing prayers of the 
priests might fall on them, so that they might 
evolve into some higher beings in the next stage 
of their existence. 

The Greek theory was formally made by 
Anaximander, we are informed, about 600 B. C. 
He taught that the earth became solid by the 
evaporation of a muddy ocean by the heat of the 



MODERN EVOLUTION. 121 

sun. The mud, by the influence of included air, 
swelled into a multitude of little bladders which 
soon developed horny shells and spines, became 
living things, burst their shells, and on the dry 
land began developing into larger and higher 
forms of life. This theory corresponds very 
nearly with that of Mr. Darwin. 

From India, through the Greeks, it is claimed, 
this theory found its way among the Latins, and, 
by its debasing materialistic tendencies, accom- 
plished its share in the final downfall of the 
Roman Empire. 

De Mallet, in the Eighteenth Century, wrote a 
book entitled "Telliamed," in which he records a 
revelation made to him when he was ill. It was 
revealed to him, he said, that all animals origi- 
nated in the water. The sea had been receding 
from the tops of the mountains, and leaving its 
contents behind. When the fish were thrown 
upon the dry land their scales split up, by evapo- 
ration, and turned to feathers, while their poste- 
rior fins turned to feet. 

So, after all, this modern (?) theory is noth- 
ing more nor less than the old putrid heathenism 
of Greece and India and China. In these later 
years the theory has not won its way even among 
infidel scientists, much less among those who have 



122 THE GOSPEL IN NATURE. 

believed in the existence of a personal God and 
in the inspiration of His Word. 

As quoted before in this work, in his review 
of Mr. Darwin's book, "The Origin of Species," 
Mr. Thomas H. Huxley says : 

"Is it satisfactorily proven, in fact, that spe- 
cies may be originated by selection; that there 
is such a thing as 'natural selection'? that none 
of the phenomena exhibited by species are incon- 
sistent with the origin of species in this way ? If 
these questions can be answered in the affirma- 
tive, Mr. Darwin's view steps out of the ranks of 
hypotheses into those of proved theories; but so 
long as the evidence at present produced falls 
short of enforcing that affirmation, so long, to 
our minds, must the new doctrine be content to 
remain among the former, . . . still a hypoth- 
esis and not yet the theory of species." Mr. Hux- 
ley continues: "After much consideration, and 
with assuredly no bias against Mr. Darwin's 
views, it is our clear conviction that as the evi- 
dence stands, it is not absolutely proven that a 
group of animals having all the characteristics 
exhibited by species in nature, has ever been origi- 
nated by selection, whether artificial or natural; 
. . . there is no positive evidence, at present, 
that any group of animals has by variation and 
selective breeding given rise to another group, 



MODERN EVOLUTION. 123 

which was even in the least degree infertile with 
the first." "Mr. Darwin," says Mr. Huxley, "is. 
perfectly aware of this point, and brings forward 
a multitude of ingenious arguments to diminish 
the force of the objection; . . . still 'this little 
rift within the lute' is not to be disguised, nor 
overlooked." (Lay Sermons, page 295.) 

Again, speaking of persistent types of life 
(Lay Sermons, page 225), Mr. Huxley says: 
"What, then, does an impartial survey of the posi- 
tively ascertained truths of palaentology testify 
in relation to the common doctrine of progressive 
modification, which suppose that modification to 
have taken place by a necessary progress from 
more or less embryonic forms, or from more or 
less generalized types, within the limits of the 
period represented by the f ossilif erous rocks ? It 
negates those doctrines, for it either shows us no 
evidence of any such modification, or it demon- 
strates it to have been very slight; and as to the 
nature of that modification it yields no evidence 
whatsoever that the earlier members of any long 
continued group were more generalized in struc- 
ture than the later ones." 

The acknowledged scientists of modern times, 
those belonging to the highest rank, have repudi- 
ated the fundamental contentions of the theory of 
evolution. If the concensus of opinion among 



124 THE GOSPEL IN NATURE. 

them can be depended upon, then there is no such 
thing as evolution in a causative sense, and hence 
the very word should be discarded and displaced 
by the words "development" and "growth," which, 
after all, exhaust all discovery as to the workings 
of physical nature. 

Professor De Quartrefages says: "I might, 
here accumulate a mass of analogous facts and 
details, but over them all would appear a general 
fact including them, which is the expression of a 
law; and here is the fact. Notwithstanding ob- 
servation reaching back for thousands of years, 
and made on hundreds of species, we do not yet 
know a single example of intermediate species ob- 
tained by the crossing of animals belonging to dif- 
ferent species" (Natural History of Man). 

Prof. L. Agassiz says : "Breeds (that is, va- 
rieties) among animals are the work of man; spe- 
cies were created by God" (Methods of Study in 
Natural History, page 147). 

The Duke of Argyle says: "Some varieties 
of form are effected in the case of a few animals 
by domestication and by constant care in the selec- 
tion of peculiarities transmissible to the young; 
but the variations are all within certain limits; 
and wherever human care relaxes or is abandoned, 
the old forms return and the selected characters 
disappear. The founding of new forms by the 



MODERN EVOLUTION. 125 

union of different species, even when standing in 
close natural relation to each other, is absolutely 
forbidden by the sentence of sterility which nature 
pronounces and enforces upon all hybrid off- 
spring. And it results that man has never seen 
the origin of species. Creation by birth is the 
only kind of creation he has ever seen ; and from 
this kind of creation he has never seen a new spe- 
cies come" (Primeval Man, pages 39, 40). 

Mr. Darwin himself concedes the permanence 
of natural species. He says: "I doubt whether 
any case of a perfectly fertile hybrid animal can 
be considered as thoroughly well authenticated" 
(Origin of Species, page 238). 

So that we conclude that whatever may be 
claimed for the powers of evolution, it may be con- 
sidered as settled that so far as investigations 
and observations have gone, there is no evidence 
whatsoever that the lines of individualism in phys- 
ical nature and the chasm between well-defined 
species have ever been crossed. So that all 
growth and development have been parallel with 
these lines of differentiation. 

As to the theory as held by Herbert Spencer, 
defined by him as "the transformation of the 
homogeneous, through successive differentiations, 
into the heterogeneous," in which form the theory 
is held by a few scholars. Principal Dawson de- 



126 THE GOSPEL IN NATURE. 

clares it is only a hypothesis, and says: "It 
solves the question of human origin by assuming 
that human nature exists potentially in mere inor- 
ganic matter, and that a chain of spontaneous 
derivations connects incandescent molecules, or 
star dust, with the world, and with man himself" 
(The Earth and Man, p. 316). 

Speaking of evolution in this form, Professor 
Tyndall says : "The question concerning the ori- 
gin of life, is whether it is due to a certain fiat — 
'Let life be' — or to a process of evolution? Was 
it potentially in matter at the beginning, or was it 
inserted at a later period? However the convic- 
tion here or there may be influenced, the process 
must be slow which commends this hypothesis of 
natural evolution to the public mind. For what 
are the core and essence of this hypothesis? Strip 
it naked and you stand face to face with the no- 
tion, that not alone the more ignoble forms of ani- 
malcular and animal life, not alone the nobler 
forms of the horse and the lion, not alone the won- 
derful and exquisite mechanism of the human 
body, but the mind itself — emotion, intellect, will, 
and all their phenomena — were once latent in a 
fiery cloud. Surely, the mere statement of such a 
notion is more than a refutation. I do not think 
that any holder of this evolution hypothesis would 
say that I over-state or over-strain it in any way. 



MODERN EVOLUTION. 127 

I merely strip it of all vagueness, and bring before 
you unclothed and unvarnished the notion by 
which it must stand or fall. Surely these notions 
represent an absurdity too monstrous to be enter- 
tained by any sane mind" (London Athenaeum) . 

The reason that Professor Tyndall and all 
these great scientists reject this form of the theory 
of evolution is because it flatly contradicts one of 
the best known laws of the science of life ; that is, 
that all life springs from antecedent life. 

Professor Drummond says : "A decided and 
authoritative conclusion has now taken place in 
science. So far as science can settle anything, 
this question is settled. The attempt to get the 
living out of the dead has failed. Spontaneous 
generation has to be given up. And it is now rec- 
ognized on every hand that life can come only 
from the touch of life." And in confirmation of 
this statement Drummond quotes the following 
from Professor Tyndall : "I affirm that no shred 
of trustworthy experimental testimony exists to 
prove that life in our day has ever appeared inde- 
pendently of antecedent life" (Natural Law in the 
Spiritual World, p. 63). 

Stirling says: "We are in the presence of 
the one incommunicable gulf — the gulf of all gulfs 
— the gulf which Mr. Huxley's protoplasm is as 
powerless to efface as any other material expedi- 



128 THE GOSPEL IN NATURE. 

ent that has ever been suggested since the eyes of 
men first looked into it — the mighty gulf between 
death and life." 

Mr. Huxley says: "The present state of 
knowledge furnishes us with no link between the 
living and the non-living." 

Virchow says : "Whoever recalls to mind the 
lamentable failure of all the attempts made very 
recently to discover a decided support for the 
generatio aequivoca in the lower forms of transi- 
tion from the inorganic to the organic world, will 
feel it doubly serious to demand that this theory, 
so utterly discredited, should be in any way ac- 
cepted as the basis of all our views of life. All 
really scientific experience tells us that life can be 
produced from a living antecedent only." 

So that if one adopt the theory of evolution 
at all, he must begin with matter possessing all its 
properties and force, and with life, for the exist- 
ence of neither of which it can give any account 
whatever. 

Mr. Darwin ingeniously skips those difficul- 
ties confronted by others, and finding a world of 
matter with life in it, starts his contention with 
the principle, as stated by himself, viz. : "descent 
with modifications." Here is his theory stated 
in his own language : "Man is descended from a 
hairy quadruped, furnished with a tail and pointed 



MODERN EVOLUTION. 129 

ears, probably arboreal in its habits, and an in- 
habitant of the Old World. This creature, if its 
whole structure had been examined by a natural- 
ist, would have been classed among the quadru- 
mana, as surely as would the common and more 
ancient of the New- World monkeys. The quadru- 
mana and all the higher mammals are probably 
derived from an ancient marisupial animal, and 
this through a long line of diversified forms, 
either from some reptile-like or some amphibian- 
like creature, and this again from some fish-like 
animal. In the dim obscurity of the past we can 
see that the progenitor of all the vertebrates must 
have been an aquatic animal, provided with 
branchia (gills) with the two sexes united in the 
same individual, and with the most important or- 
gans of the body, such as the brain and heart, 
imperfectly developed. This animal seems to 
have been more like a larvae of our existing ascidi- 
ans (sear squirts) than any other known form" 
(Descent of Man, vol. 2, p. 372) . 

This bold assertion as to man's origin is curi- 
ously surprising. Of course, Mr. Darwin regards 
the Bible account of the origin of man as beneath 
his notice, and proceeds with one sweep of his 
pen to dispose of it all. This, however, is not so 
surprising as his disregard of the known fact that 
— as he himself admits — there is no positive proof 



130 THE GOSPEL IN NATURE. 

that in the development of the animal kingdom the 
lines separating distinct species have ever been 
crossed. Despite the fact that all observation 
shows not only the absence of any connecting link 
between man and the lower orders, but that no 
connecting link between any two animal species 
has ever been discovered, still Mr. Darwin, with 
the utmost assumption and presumption, as it 
seems to me, makes his unwarranted statements. 

If a more surprising thing could be found 
anywhere — a bolder assumption of complacent 
superiority — a more inconsistent position, I think 
it would be that which is presented in the Chris- 
tian minister's attempt to find some method by 
which he can bend the Bible to fit into the assump- 
tion of such bald-faced infidelity, if not to say, 
nonsense. 

At the close of a lengthy discussion of the sub- 
ject of man's origin, Professor De Quatrefages 
says: "To sum up, the theory that man is de- 
scended from the monkey by means of successive 
modifications is a brilliant fancy which has no 
support in precise facts ; in most cases it depends 
upon possibilities, and often upon possibilities in 
flagrant opposition to facts. In the name of sci- 
entific truth, I affirm that we have had for our 
ancestors neither gorilla, nor ourang-outang, nor 
chimpanzee" (Natural History of Man, p. 86). 



MODERN EVOLUTION. 131 

Principal Dawson says: "Evolution cheats 
us with the semblance of a man without the real- 
ity. Shave and paint your ape as you may, clothe 
him and set him upon his feet, still he fails greatly 
of the 'human form divine,' and so it is with him 
morally and spiritually as well. We have seen 
that he wants the instinct of immortality, the love 
of God, the mental and spiritual power of domin- 
ion over the earth" (The Earth and Man, p. 395). 

So we conclude that there is no real founda- 
tion for the theory of modern evolution. There 
is growth; there is development, but no evolution 
in the sense that, left to itself, anything really 
lifts itself to a higher plane. I submit that, as 
Mr. Huxley and others say, there is no evidence of 
the existence of any such thing as "natural selec- 
tion" or the "survival of the fittest" as regnant 
principles in physical nature. On the other hand, 
there is an array of evidence on every side that the 
regnant principle in all physical nature is a ten- 
dency to degradation and to death. 

As I see it, the blind acceptance of this palpa- 
ble fallacy, as "a working principle," as it is called, 
has constituted the most prolific source of error 
the world has ever known : 

1. The adoption of the theory renders one 
unfit to write human history. He must make his 
records fit his theory. He dares not invest the 



132 THE GOSPEL IN NATURE. 

sages of the race of mankind with that wisdom 
and sagacity which it would be well for men to 
emulate, and which each generation should reckon 
as one of its chiefest assets. Since the man of to- 
day is the tip top of an ever-ascending evolution, 
in which through all the ages the principles of 
"natural selection" and the "survival of the fit- 
test" have had universal sway, why turn one's 
face backward to learn lessons of wisdom? Con- 
trary to the teaching of the Bible, which starts 
a pure stream of humanity from the throne of 
God, evolution reverses the stream and starts the 
race from the slime of the sea. So that to look 
backward is to face the mud. 

2. The theory, therefore, is calculated to de- 
stroy all reverence and veneration, which are so 
close akin to worship itself, and without which 
worship is impossible. 

3. The theory rules out a personal God, and 
deifies chance and accident, and makes creation 
a gambling device. Even Theistic Evolution re- 
moves a personal God so far away from creation 
that one is tempted to believe that by this time He 
has forgotten it. The fact is, the theory is an 
abortive attempt to show an effect without a 
cause, and, in my judgment, was born in the brain 
of hatred of the doctrine of the existence of a per- 
sonal God. 



MODERN EVOLUTION. 133 

4. The theory is the foundation rock of mod- 
ern so-called higher criticism of the Bible. This 
is the reason that the Old Testament Scriptures 
are the target for these sharpshooters. How 
could a book written thousands of years ago be 
good enough for us? The race had not suffi- 
ciently evolved itself from its degraded ancestry 
to have given to the world an authoritative, up-to- 
date revelation. 

5. The theory, it seems to me, is the prolific 
mother of a brood of heterodox theories in the- 
ology. The child, for instance, has in him the evo- 
lutionary tendency. All that is necessary to be 
done for him, according to the evolutionary the- 
ory, is to tend his environment. Give him a chance 
to let what is in him come out, and he will natu- 
rally be better than his father. 

The whole theory precludes the necessity for 
any outside interference in man's salvation. No 
need of regeneration by the Holy Spirit. No need 
of conversion — turning around. He already faces 
in the right direction. Everything in nature is 
tending upward, and man is no exception. Revo- 
lution in human life and character would mean de- 
generation. 

How diametrically opposed to the teaching of 
the Scriptures is all this. The Bible declares that 
man was created in the image of God — that he 



134 THE GOSPEL IN NATURE. 

was morally perfect, but by sin fell from his high 
estate; and that he is, in a state of nature, in a 
state of depravity; that he is "inclined to evil"; 
that left to himself he is bound for perdition ; that 
no power in him, or about him, can save him ; that 
he must be born again — "born from above," cre- 
ated anew in Christ Jesus; that there must of 
necessity be a complete revolution in his character 
and life ; that this revolution is effected by an out- 
side agent who is above him ; that the old life must 
be crucified, and its tendencies arrested. Educa- 
tion will not accomplish this; there must be re- 
generation — re-creation. 

The whole matter of the doctrine of deprav- 
ity — of the nature of sin, of the plan of salvation, 
of the necessity of the incarnation, of a vicarious 
atonement, of the inspiration, authority and suf- 
ficiency of the Sacred Scriptures — is exactly con- 
trary to the philosophy involved in the theory of 
modern evolution. 

Concluding, it seems to me, that the truth 
about these matters is about this: There is in 
everything we know of, perhaps, the possibility of 
being lifted to a higher state, and yet all things 
left to themselves degenerate. Man can lift physi- 
cal things to a higher plane, because he is above 
them. God can lift man because He is above him. 
Involution is prior to evolution, and growth and 



MODERN EVOLUTION. 135 

development are the words which should displace 
the word evolution, which at once suggests a hurt- 
ful fallacy in physics, morals and religion. 

Dr. James McCosh gives us plainly and cor- 
rectly the limitations of evolution, which he cou- 
ples with development. That is the only evolu- 
tion there is. Speaking of evolution and develop- 
ment, Dr. McCosh says : "These phrases, so much 
used in the present day, have much the same mean- 
ing. Both point to one process, viewed under two 
different aspects. Both indicate that one thing 
comes out of another. But development denotes 
the process going on; whereas evolution refers 
more to the process as we look back upon it. We 
talk of the seed being developed into the plant, and 
of the plant being evolved from the seed." 

The use of the word in this sense is perfectly 
correct. But the theory of evolution is made to 
contain more than mere development, and is in- 
vested with primary causal force, and thus in- 
tended to overcome the necessity for the interpo- 
sition of a personal God in accounting for the phe- 
nomena in physical nature. 

Speaking of the limitations of evolution, Dr. 
McCosh says : 

1. "It cannot give us the original matter 
which must be there before it begins to develop. 

2. "Development" (or evolution, for the 



136 THE GOSPEL IN NATURE. 

words are used interchangeably by Dr. McCosh) 
"cannot account for the beneficent order and spe- 
cial arrangements of the universe. Being itself 
blind, it might as readily work evil as good. We 
have to call in a power above itself to account for 
the beneficence of evolution. 

3. "There is evidence that new potencies have 
been added from time to time. Geology shows us 
new powers coming in. It is not possible to ac- 
count for the actual phenomena of the world by a 
mass of molecules acting according to mechanical 
laws. There is no proof that there was life in the 
original atom, or molecules formed by atoms. 

4. "When these new higher potencies come 
in, they act upon and act with the previously exist- 
ing powers. In our bodily frame, mind acts har- 
moniously with matter, and the two produce joint 
results. The memory proceeds upon the informa- 
tion given by the senses, and the understanding 
and the conscience presuppose both the senses and 
the memory. Man is made of the dust of the 
ground, but there is breathed into him the breath 
of life, and he becomes a living soul. 

5. "As the result of the whole — of the ac- 
tion of the old forces, and the introduction of the 
new — the work goes on in eras, or epochs, in which 
we have, first, lifeless creation with all things 
mixed, then the separation of air from water, and 



MODERN EVOLUTION. 137 

of land from sea, the distinct appearance of the 
heavenly bodies, the forthcoming of planets, and 
animals rising higher and higher till they culmi- 
nate in man. 

6. "This work combined — the evolution of 
the old and the superaddition of the new — is pro- 
gressive, advancing from the inferior to the high- 
er. This progress is still going on; and from 
causes now operating, especially from the intelli- 
gence and industry of man, there will be an in- 
creased fertility and wealth; and the earth and 
its principal inhabitant will be brought to a higher 
and higher condition." 

This, then, is all there is of evolution, and, 
as we have before said, since the word has been 
invested with a meaning, and the principle with a 
force, which it does not, cannot have, it should 
be discarded and the words growth, progress and 
development substituted for it. 

The rising order here promulged by Dr. 
McCosh exactly accords with the Word of God. 
"In the beginning God created the heaven and the 
earth." But "the earth was waste and void." So 
a new potency is inserted. "The Spirit of God 
moved upon the face of the waters," and so on. 
So, step by step, the new potency is interjected, 
and at the top of the development, God said, "Let 
us make man." 



138 THE GOSPEL IN NATURE. 

So the seed of all growth; the momentum in 
all advancement ; the uplift of all that rises, comes 
down from God, and does not spring up from the 
earth. 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE FAMILY. 

In the very nature of the earthly existence of 
the human race, the general good depends upon 
the recognition of certain relations among men, 
and of the obligations which grow out of those 
relations. The family contains these relations in 
their entirety. Now, the family is not primarily 
the product of social custom, or legal enactment. 
It is not, we may say, a mere arbitrary thing. 
The family is created by the nature of our earthly 
existence. There must of necessity be the father, 
the mother, and the children. The necessary care 
of the children, the natural parental affec- 
tion and interest, coupled with the natural devo- 
tion of the man to the woman, and the woman 
to the man, form the basis of the family, which is 
recognized by social custom and by legal enact- 
ment. On account of the fact that the institution 
of the family grows out of the very nature of our 
earthly existence, the maintenance of the home has 
been the mainspring of all correct and helpful soci- 



140 THE GOSPEL IN NATURE. 

ety among men, while the decadence of the family 
ties, the downfall of the institution of the family — 
the home — has invariably been followed by the de- 
cadence of all that is desirable and worthful in 
human society. The reason for this is in the fact, 
as already stated, that in the family is found all 
the relations out of which arise all the duties and 
obligations in human society. In the very nature 
of the case, therefore, the properly regulated home 
is the safeguard of the race — the plant-bed in 
which is grown and nourished all those sentiments 
and principles which underlie the well-being of 
society and of the state. 

The fundamental relations in the family are 
three: the paternal, the maternal and the frater- 
nal. These are necessary relations, on account of 
the nature of the institution. The father, on ac- 
count of his superior physical strength, and men- 
tal structure and bent, is the head of the house- 
hold. The confiding wife and mother is the 
companion by his side — the comfort and inspira- 
tion of his life. The children are the subjects of 
discipline, of training, of development, and the 
objects of sympathy, love, care and interest. 

The paternal relation suggests reverence for 
authority, implicit obedience, correction, support, 
defense, and so on. 

The maternal suggests life's beginning, life's 



THE FAMILY. 141 

sustenance, affectionate care, patience, sympathy, 
forgiving love, and so on. 

The fraternal suggests community of inter- 
est, equality, brotherly love, kindliness and help- 
fulness. 

If one will analyze these relations, and all 
those sentiments, obligations, duties and privi- 
leges, which arise therefrom, he will find that 
these relations, obligations, privileges, duties, etc., 
include all there is in human life. 

Now, it is plainly evident that a true religion 
would fall in line with this institution, which, in 
the very nature of the case, proclaims all relations, 
and inculcates all duties pertaining to our earthly 
existence. I claim that this institution of the 
family, which is not primarily the result of social 
custom or legal enactment, but rather a natural 
product of conditions created by the very nature 
of things, is a miniature Kingdom of God ; that in 
the properly regulated family there are, as we may 
say, kindergarten lessons concerning, and demon- 
strations of, all the relations and duties inculcated 
in the Scriptures pertaining to the spiritual fam- 
ily of the Father in Heaven. So that the Chris- 
tian religion, in all the relations and duties of the 
Kingdom of God inculcated by it, is necessarily 
demonstrated in an earthly kingdom which must 



142 THE GOSPEL IN NATURE. 

exist on earth, on account of the nature of the 
earthly life. 

If one will consider the relation of the father 
in the earthly family — what the father is and 
does ; what are his privileges in relation to the dif- 
ferent members of the family; what is due him 
from the children of his household, and so on, it 
will clearly appear that the relations, privileges 
and duties growing out of the earthly paternal 
relation exactly correspond with the teachings of 
the Scriptures concerning the relations, etc., of 
the Heavenly Father in the Family or Kingdom of 
God. 

The Christian religion institutes as a funda- 
mental tenet the doctrine of the fatherhood of 
God. God is the father. He deserves reverence, 
exercises authority, demands implicit obedience, 
and corrects, supports, and defends His children. 
The Holy Spirit takes the place of mother in the 
spiritual family. "Begotten of God," "Born of 
the Spirit," is the teaching of the Scriptures. The 
Holy Spirit imparts life. The Holy Spirit sus- 
tains life. The Holy Spirit is the great Comforter 
and Helper and Guide. Jesus is the Elder Brother, 
He takes part with His brethren, becomes one 
with them, suffers for them, and shares the heav- 
enly inheritance with them. 

If these relations, and the obligations, privi- 



THE FAMILY. 143 

leges and duties growing out of them, be consid- 
ered in relation to the larger institution of human 
society in general, and of the state, it will be 
found that they include all relations and all obli- 
gations which pertain to human existence. All 
relations and all duties rest back upon the pater- 
nal, maternal and fraternal. Reverence, obedi- 
ence, trust, confidence, brotherly love — in fact, 
everything sought or desired as worthful and 
good, is included here. The Kingdom of God is 
one. The earthly existence is the introduction, 
the object-teaching, the demonstration, the physi- 
cal, yet the identical arrangement; the identical 
system, principles and laws, reach on into the 
spiritual, just as one learns in plain arithmetic all 
the fundamentals of mathematics, which are ap- 
plied, until the science carries one, so to speak, 
into the realm of pure thought, where the physical 
is lost sight of and is not needed. 

So it is seen that there is economy in the 
Kingdom of God — nothing is to be lost. If the 
relations and obligations of the family — the 
earthly family — are established and acknowledged, 
the great principles are carried over info society, 
and into the affairs of the state, and the very same 
relations and obligations, involving precisely the 
same principles, are carried over into the religious 
or spiritual life. All men recognize these rela- 



144 THE GOSPEL IN NATURE. 

tions, and obligations in the earthly existence. 
Why should they be repudiated anywhere? Who 
among men will repudiate reverence, obedience to 
law, submission to rightful authority, sympathy, 
love, brotherly kindness, human equality and 
brotherhood, justice and mercy? Are not these 
among the great matters proposed and commended 
in the Scriptures ? 

I show you a "family tree." It is one tree. 
The root of the tree is the earthly family. The 
body and branches of the tree are the great insti- 
tution of the earthly human society. The blos- 
soms and the fruit are the family above. The 
same principles run through all. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

AN APPEAL TO AN UNBELIEVER. 

Dear Friend : 

Do you really believe that the physical uni- 
verse which displays so much of wisdom in adapta- 
tion of means to intelligent ends; so many nice 
adjustments and combinations involving all knowl- 
edge of mathematics, of chemistry, of botany, of 
physiology, of astronomy, of zoology, of anthro- 
pology, of physics, of mineralogy, of psychology, 
of philosophy, etc., came into existence by chance? 
Do you believe that matter — little atoms of mat- 
ter — endowed themselves with sufficient wisdom 
and gave to themselves the power or force to con- 
struct the physical universe? 

Do you really believe that, left to itself, any 
individual thing in the whole physical creation 
will regenerate itself, will lift itself to a higher 
plane of existence or being? 

Can you see in the physical creation how that 
some being who, like man, can think, can plan, can 
predestinate and foreordain, can adjust, can do 



146 THE GOSPEL IN NATURE. 

things, can manipulate physical forces, and com- 
bine physical elements, and who is infinite in all 
these powers and capacities, must have created 
the physical universe? 

Don't you really know that the Creator of the 
physical universe — the Creator of man — must 
have been wise, powerful, just, merciful, good? 

Don't you know that there are three great 
kingdoms in physical nature, and three natures 
in man ? 

Don't you know that men are inclined to do 
wrong, and that it therefore does not require much 
denial of one's natural propensities, appetites and 
passions to pursue a life of sin? 

Don't you measure virtue by the amount of 
self-denial involved in it? 

Don't you know that the government of the 
physical universe is by law? 

Don't you believe there are rewards and pen- 
alties in the physical government about you ; and 
don't you believe in a human government which 
protects the law-abiding citizen and punishes the 
lawless ? 

Don't you believe that all kinds of life you 
know about have in them the possibilities of im- 
provement ; and don't you know that all forms of 
life about which you know are lifted to a higher 
plane, not by inherent power of selection, etc., but 



AN APPEAL TO AN UNBELIEVER. 147 

by an outside interference of some being or force 
above them? 

Don't you know that one thing exists for an- 
other here in this world, and that almost all the 
good that comes to any of the creatures of earth, 
comes through a substitute — an intervention — a 
shelter, etc. ? 

Don't you believe in a coming judgment where 
those who do right will be rewarded, and those 
who do wrong will receive their just deserts? 

Don't you believe in hating wrong-doing and 
turning from it in your own life? 

Do you blieve in a course of conduct which 
involves the innocent in suffering? Don't you 
believe in permitting a mother to deny herself for 
the good of her child if she chooses to do so ? 

Do you believe that little blind, unintelligent 
atoms of matter planned the universe, created 
man, designed his physical body and constructed 
it? Don't you believe in God — God the Father, 
Son and Holy Spirit? 

It seems to me that if you will investigate 
your own views you will find that you are com- 
pelled to acknowledge the truth of these matters. 
There is, it seems to me, every evidence that the 
whole physical creation was created, ordained, 
according to a perfectly thought out plan. Does 
it not appear to you that back of the physical ere- 



148 THE GOSPEL IN NATURE. 

ation there is, or was, a great mind? Is it not 
plain to you that on account of the fact that the 
physical universe is constructed upon an intelli- 
gent definite plan, it is therefore possible for men 
to trace out the operations of this intelligence and 
to discover this plan? If there were no definite 
physical principles and laws, would it have been 
possible for a man to trace out these laws and 
principles and to reduce his discoveries to a writ- 
ten statement and call it science? If, then, in all 
scientific investigation one is simply discovering 
the Creator's thoughts and plans, may we not con- 
fidently believe that, in so far as we are able to 
discover and understand these plans, we may de- 
rive from an understanding of them some knowl- 
edge of a Being who would of His own free choice 
bring such schemes or plans into existence as the 
rule and purpose of His own action ? Is it unrea- 
sonable to claim that the principle, "know a tree 
by its fruits," is a correct one ? Do not the deeds 
of one of your fellow men speak to you in the most 
certain way of the real character of the man? 
Are you not conscious of the fact that you have 
a physical, intellectual and moral nature? Do 
you not know that whether the Creator inspired 
Mohammed or Confucius or Paul, He created the 
universe and created you? Would you accept as 
the inspired oracles of the Creator of the physical 



AN APPEAL TO AN UNBELIEVER. 149 

universe a revelation which was disputed in its 
main teachings by the principles involved in the 
creation? If in making a comparison of the 
claims of any revelation in writing, that its author 
was the Creator of the physical universe, you 
should find one such written revelation to cor- 
respond in its main features with the revelation 
of the purposes and ways of the Creator as re- 
vealed in the physical creation, while all other 
written revelations were disputed by the plain 
revelation of such purposes and ways, would you 
not decide in favor of the claims of that revelation 
which, in its main features, corresponded with the 
revelations discovered in the physical creation? 
It seems to me that correct reasoning would lead 
you to do so unhesitatingly. 

Now suppose we take into consideration some 
of the main features of the revelations of truth 
contained in the Bible, and which are peculiar to 
the Bible, that are not found in any other revela- 
tion which lays claim to being a revelation from 
God, and see how the Bible is corroborated by the 
physical creation while other revelations are dis- 
puted. 

Take as a first illustration the doctrine of 
human depravity as taught in the Scriptures. 
This doctrine is found in no other system. The 



150 THE GOSPEL IN NATURE. 

doctrine is that men are born in sin and con- 
ceived in iniquity; that man by sin fell from a 
high moral state, and since his fall he has a sin 
nature which inclines him away from the path of 
righteousness and virtue; that the divine capaci- 
ties of his spirit lie in ruins, and that this fact 
is the explanation of the further fact that man is 
thrust upon a scene of moral struggle wherein 
self-denial lies at the very threshold of a life of 
righteousness and virtue. 

Is not this serious doctrine one of the most 
perfectly demonstrated facts of our earthly ex- 
istence? Who among us does not observe this 
tendency to wrong-doing in himself and others? 
Is it not strange that no other religious system 
except the Christian system has any reference 
whatever to this teaching of universal observa- 
tion? This doctrine lies at the very foundation 
of the Christian system, and constitutes the neces- 
sity for the incarnation of the Savior, His aton- 
ing sacrifice, and the office-work of the Holy 
Spirit in regeneration and sanctification. 

Take also as a second and last illustration the 
vicarious and mediatorial work of Jesus for the 
salvation and glorification of men. This great 
doctrine of a divine substitute and sacrifice for 
man's salvation is not found in any other reli- 
gious system except the Christian system. It 



AN APPEAL TO AN UNBELIEVER. 151 

may be said to be the very center of the system. 
We live through a dying substitute is the very 
essence of the Gospel. Now, this- great doctrine 
is the very central fact proclaimed by physical 
nature, and throughout the earthly existence of 
man. What good comes to any creature of God 
by any other method except through substitution 
and sacrifice? All physical good, all intellectual 
good, all social and political good, come alike 
through a shelter, a substitute, a sacrifice. Who 
is it who has not been prepared by every other 
kind of refuge, shelter and hiding place, to appre- 
ciate that perfect expression of the prayer of a 
soul exposed to the storm of the fury of a just 
retribution : 

"Rock of ages, cleft for me, 
Let me hide myself in Thee." 

It should be said that no other religious sys- 
tem has in it this refuge, but God's creation has 
a refuge on every hand. Which, among these 
claimants to credence, shall we believe? Shall 
we discard a religion which is illustrated, corrobo- 
rated and demonstrated by God's creation for one 
which is disputed by the revelations of Nature? 

Let me urge all those who have stumbled in 
doubt, and all those who have been nonplussed 



152 THE GOSPEL IN NATURE. 

by a demand for a reason of the hope that is 
within them, to take God's Word and His works 
together and unfalteringly contend for the faith 
once for all delivered to the saints. 



THE END. 



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